PHILO VANCE RETURNS

cop vs private eye: Eddie Dunn and William Wright

PHILO VANCE RETURNS (1947). Director: William Beaudine. 

"Mrs. Simns is a neurotic -- an advanced case."

Larry Blendon (Damian O'Flynn) has already had four wives and a girlfriend, but he is smitten again when he meets singer Virginia Berneaux (Ramsay Ames). Unfortunately, Virginia is shot to death not long after being introduced to Larry's grandmother, Stella (Clara Blandick), then Larry himself is found dead. Larry's friend, detective Philo Vance (William Wright) teams up with Virginia's former manager, Alexis Karnoff (Leon Belasco), to look up these former wives -- and the fan dancer Choo Choo (Iris Adrian) -- all of whom were unaccountably mentioned in Larry's will (what, no divorce settlements?). There are more murders, usually involving women who put on a lipstick that's been poisoned. Frank Wilcox [The Devils Mask] is lawyer George Hullman, and Eddie Dunn [A Fig Leaf for Eve] is police lieutenant Mullard, who often finds Vance underfoot and doesn't like it. This one had possibilities in its characters and plot, but it's a minor PRC (Producer's Releasing Corporation) production, which puts it on an even lower level than Monogram. Still, Wright [Reveille with Beverly] is okay as Vance, and most of the performances are at least competent. Albert Glasser did the score.   

Verdict: Standard series mystery with some interesting elements. **

A FIG LEAF FOR EVE aka DESIRABLE LADY

Jan Wiley goes into her dance

A FIG LEAF FOR EVE (aka Desirable Lady/1944). Director: Donald Brodie.

 A dancer named Eve (Jan Wiley) is arrested for non-existent "lewdness" but it turns out to be her agent, Dan's (Phil Warren), publicity stunt. But she meets a shady bail bondsman named Hoffman (Eddie Dunn) who tells her she might just be the heir to a hair oil fortune; her life story corresponds to that of an "Eve Westland." Meeting her relatives, the members of the Sardum family, she discovers she has an ally in Uncle Horace (Edward Keane) and his sweet old sister Sarah (Janet Scott), but antagonists in the form of Horace's termagant wife, Lavinia (Betty Blythe), and her daughter, Millicent (Marilyn McConnell), who find her utterly declasse. Will our gal get her fair share of the estate and find true love with Dan? This could have made a cute and funny picture, but it opts for unconvincing melodrama instead. It doesn't even have a decisive wind-up. The acting is okay from a pretty unknown cast, but you can see why Wiley never became a big star; even her dancing isn't that great, and she looked a lot sexier in the serial Secret Agent X-9 made the following year.

Verdict: This is yet another stinky public domain movie retitled for the DVD market.  *1/2.