THE CASE OF THE LUCKY LEGS (1935)

Yesterday, I reviewed Warren William as Philo Vance; today, I'll look at Warren William as Perry Mason. The Mason movies are very different in tone and content from the more famous TV series with Raymond Burr. The TV episodes always climaxed in the courtroom, but in the two Mason films I've seen so far, we never see the courtroom; Mason is more a traditional movie detective, though played very nearly for laughs, rather like William played Sam Spade in SATAN MET A LADY. In this one, Mason is called in to investigate when the promoter of a beauty contest (the Lucky Legs of the title) runs off with the money; Mason finds his dead body and has to deal with a number of suspects, including the girl who won the contest (Patricia Ellis), her boss (Porter Hall) who has a crush on her and called Mason in the first place, and her boyfriend (Lyle Talbot) who is also a doctor, an important point when the murder weapon is discovered to be a scalpel. Instead of a courtroom ending, Mason gathers the suspects and narrates a flashback to show what really happened. Allen Jenkins is his usual reliable self as Mason's sidekick, and Genevieve Tobin is fine as faithful secretary Della Street. Warren does a good drunk act in the opening scene (imagine Raymnond Burr shambling about, drunkly shouting out witticisms) and Mary Treen (Tilly at the Savings & Loan in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) has a funny scene as Jenkins' wife. Also with Craig Reynolds (quite handsome as the con man murder victim), Barton MacLane, and Henry O'Neill. It's pretty clear from this movie that William's bland performance as Philo Vance was more a problem with the director or writers rather than with the actor; as Mason, William is loose, funny, and charming. [TCM]