Genre: Mystery
IMDb meta-data is runtime of 1 hour and 2 minutes, rated 6.1 by 102 cinematizens.
Verdict: S l o w.
Philo needs vitamins to perk up. He is slow as molasses in this outing. stopping in front of every mirror to check his pencil mo, or so it seemed. I have never warmed to Mr Vance. Maybe it is that first name: Philo. If ‘Phil’ was good enough for Marlow why isn’t for Vance? Mail your answers to someone else as soon as possible.
Jewel thieves double cross each other, and Philo sorts them out with a very little help from Plod.
Dan Seymour is always a good heavy but he is murdered in the first act, well…after that not much is left.
The body count is high. There are so amusing touches with the butler’s tweenager niece that single this screenplay out. But not much else.
Released on 12 April 1947, the month that Jack Robinson broke the colour barrier in baseball in a one-man Iliad.