BENSON MYSTERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1064, 30 August 1930, Page 14

BENSON MYSTERY

MURDER AND COMEDY AT STRAND “CRAZY THAT WAY” SHOWN It has been said that the American, S. S. Van Dine, is the most scientific writer of detective stories this decade has produced. Furthermore, his clever tales lend themselves readily for talkie purposes. “The Benson Murder Case” is an example. This “Philo Vance” thriller, the latest and last of the Van Dine series, was presented at the Strand Theatre last evening, together with a delightful feature-length comedy, “Crazy That Way.'” To bo sure, “The Benson Murder Case” differs in action and denouement from the original story. That, however, is all to the good, particularly as the plot is substantially the same and the resultant drama anything but a weak one. So large is novelist Van Line’s public that a faithful rule-of-thumb adaptation would have one outstanding weakness —a great many people would know “who did it, and how.” As it is, the screen version of “The Benson Murder Case” is as mystifying to those who have read the book as to those who have not. One welcomes the return of William Powell as Philo Vance, the psycholo-gist-investigator; Eugene Pallette, with his delightful characterisation of Sergeant Heath, and the District Attorney. This team has made its mark in talkies, and it was a pity that Paramount departed from its members for even one Van Dine film —"The Bishop Murder Case.” Benson is introduced as a stockbroker with many enemies. During a storm the principals in the drama that is to follow assemble at his country home. By a strange chance the District Attorney with his friend, Philo Vance, put in an appearance in time for the killing, j A card game is in progress on the ground floor. One of the visitors is criticising Vance’s methods. “In previous cases you were dealing with amateurs,” he says banteringly. “You have yet to be up against the professional the-shoot-’em-down-and-let-’em lie criminal.” At that moment Benson is upstairs guarding a string of pearls that has come into his possession. Suddenly the card game is interrupted. The sound of a shot is heard and, with a horrible scuffling clatter, the body of Benson rolls downstairs. “Now then, do your stuff,” says th< visitor to Vance—and Vance does it An interesting Fox News followed “The Benson Murder Case,” and the Strand’s programme was rounded of! by one of the most entertaining feature comedies seen in Auckland for many a day. “Crazy That Way” in an intimate little story of a pretty blonde whe suffers from a surfeit of admirers