The Case Of The Howling Dog

Mason Gets
A Case On

The Case Of
The Howling Dog
USA 1934
Directed by Alan Crosland
Warner Archive DVD Region 1

Okay, I’d best make a confession. Not only have I never read any of Erle Stanley Gardner’s popular books about the much loved law room warrior Perry Mason, I’ve also never seen any of the movies or TV shows based on his books about the character either. I mean, sure, I’ve seen the odd ten minutes of the early Raymond Burr TV shows here and there, as my dad likes the character but, I’ve never really cottoned onto him until now. I bought my dad a set of the six, original movies which were, as far as I know, the only ones made in the US for cinema release... the various TV shows kinda carried the legacy of the character after these. And, well... I thought I’d watch this with him to see what the fuss was all about.

So The Case Of The Howling Dog is the very first screen adaptation of one of Gardner’s books and, unlike those books and future versions (from what I understand), Mason is already a very successful lawyer commanding a huge law firm and large set of offices. Here’s he’s played by Warren William and he’s also aided by his perpetual secretary Della Street, played here by Helen Trenholme in her only shot in the role. I believe that, later on in the books and also the films, the two characters get married.

The plot set up has an unusual hook of a neighbour’s police dog troubling a guy who moved in two months before. He hires Mason to take care of his will and also to try and arrest the guy who he believes is making the dog howl. It all gets very convoluted with Mason getting embroiled in a plot which involves two wives and two husbands (one of whom is initially Mason’s client) and the woman later suspected of shooting one of the men, who Mason is also, because of his contract with his initial client, in a position to defend. Of course, there are a couple of more murders before the story is through and, I have to say that, while I was kinda expecting the way the story played out in the film, it’s a little more restrained and unusual than many of the film series with running characters I’ve seen from this time period.

For instance, this is not rough and tumble movie where the main protagonist chases and fights his way to the solution of the case, picking up helpful clues along the way. Mason is a lawyer and doesn’t get involved with all that malarky, by the looks of it. This is not The Saint, The Falcon or even the Charlie Chan film series in terms of how these are put together. However, in spite of this, the film doesn’t get boring and Mason does do quite a lot of, well, shall we say skillful manipulation and staging of the facts which, I must say, I really wasn’t prepared for. It’s not that he’s fabricating evidence so much as creating new evidence which is just the right side of that distinction to discredit other observations and throw things into doubt... so, yeah, wasn’t expecting that so much. Nor was I expecting his clients, who he is defending, to lie to him either but... well, yeah, this is not familiar territory for me.

The film rolls along at a fair crack and, about twenty minutes before the end, the trial of Mason’s defendant starts. Now, another of my expectations dashed was the assumption that there would be a lot of court room drama in this but, barring a couple of quick adjournments and the discovery of two more corpses just around the corner from the trial (which seems a bit bizarre in terms of placement of the action), the courtroom scenes are over pretty quickly. There’s a slight rumple which I didn’t quite understand in terms of legal distinction at the end of the movie but, well, in the end the defendant goes away unscathed and with a new lease of life... and a new leash too, courtesy of a dog which Mason brings in for his client at the end (the howling dog is shot by... a person I won’t reveal here).

So, yeah... The Case Of The Howling Dog is not my usual kind of picture but I enjoyed it right enough and I’ll probably watch the others with my dad when he starts going through them. So look out for more Perry Mason movie reviews on here sometime, relatively, soon. Apologies for the short length of this review but, yeah, I really don’t have too much to say about this initial entry.