The Benson Murder Case (1930)

Sadly my copy of this movie isn’t very good, but this is all I have, I don’t think TCM has ever shown it, and it’s not commercially available, so you get what you can get. Natalie had a somewhat major role this time, William Powell is the only real star in this movie, the others are all about the same. This one of William Powell’s many “Philo Vance” movies, much like the “Thin Man” series, fun little whodunits. William Powell is my hero, he is always so cool, always looks cool, so sly yet elegant, and he gets all the good looking ladies, what a lucky man. Just think of all the beautiful women he got to make love to (on screen of course, then again some off screen too), Marion Davies, Bebe Daniels, Evelyn Brent, Ruth Chatterton, Jean Arthur, Fay Wray, Carole Lombard, Wynne Gibson, Joan Crawford, Kay Francis, Joan Blondell, Myrna Loy, Verree Teasdale, Jean Harlow, Hedy Lamarr, Lauren Bacall, Jean Harlow and of course Natalie Moorhead, I would trade places with him any day. Natalie has a few scenes and she makes the most of them, she is dressed in great early 30’s clothes, very sexy and chic. She plays Fanny Del Roy who has a secret and is of course one of the many suspects in the Benson murder, for a while I was sure she was the murderer, but in the end she was innocent. All the suspects lost money in the stock market, and Mr. Benson was their stockbroker, Natalie wanted her jewel case back that she gave Mr. Benson as collateral, there was something special in that jewel case and it wasn’t the pearls. This movie was fun, a great mix of mystery and comedy, adding Eugene Pallette in the cast was great, he is always funny, I really want a better copy, Natalie and William Powell work great together, I can’t wait to watch “Shadow of the Law” another Moorhead and Powell movie.