Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Lack of good storyline.

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Any movie with Virginia Bruce in it is worth watching, and I enjoyed Jessie Ralph's tantrum, similar to the ones she threw in The Thin Man. But this movie doesn't make a lot of sense. For one thing, people can't be hypnotized to kill themselves, unless they're suicidal in the first place. You might be able to hypnotize someone to jump off a bus if you tell them it's on fire and they'll land on a soft mattress, but not if they know they're going to die, as the character in this movie does, and states very clearly ahead of time. Also, there's an annoying scene -- repeated in so many movies -- where someone tells the detective they know who the killer is. Naturally they don't give them the name at the time, but promise to reveal it later. Which of course they never do because they're killed before they can. Yes, Philo, by all means make sure the person doesn't give you the name over the phone, because... why exactly? And the "dueling pistol" looks like a modern gun to me, not an antique. And when the killer tries to hypnotize Vance, does he really think it's that easy, just flash your shiny cigarette case in his eyes and he'll go under?

All the Philo Vance films I've seen so far contain the element of clever misdirection, and "The Garden Murder Case" is no exception; although the "how" of two out of the three murders is not that hard to spot (even if you haven't read Leonard Maltin's review, which unfortunately gives the secret away!), the "who" and the "why" are more difficult to answer. This mystery is like a well-put-together puzzle. And this being an MGM production, it's considerably slicker and more expensive-looking than most of the other Vance films I've seen - lavish sets, incredible amount of extras, etc. It's also very well-cast in all parts, big and small; the one cast member I would like to single out is Virginia Bruce, who combines old-style beauty with a quite modern and individual acting style. And Frieda Inescort, in one scene, appears in a nightgown that shows just enough to make me wish the film was made a couple of years earlier, before the Code! **1/2 out of 4.

**SPOILERS** Overly boring Philo Vance mystery movie with Edmund Lowe playing the famous suave and dapper detective.In this film Philo gets involved with the accidental death of jockey Flyod Garden, Douglas Walton, who in a state to total oblivion, acting as if his brain was detached from his body, ends up falling off from his mount in a steeplechase race breaking his neck. This was exactly what,the what looked like mind controlled, Garden predicted will happened to him just before the race started!Philo soon suspects that Garden's death wasn't an accident but murder. This has multi-millionaire horse owner, whom Garden was riding for, Edger Lowe Hammle, Gene Lockhart, get a bit hot under the collar in that he becomes the prime suspect in Garden's death or as Philo thinks murder! Things get even worse for the beleaguered Hammle when Floyd's distraught dad Dr. Garden, Henry B. Waithall, accuses him of his son's murder after he recovered, when confronting Hammle, from a major fainting spell at the Hammle estate.As things soon turn out Hammle himself ends up getting murdered which not only keeps him from standing trial in Garden's murder but exonerates him, as if that would bring him back to life, of his death altogether. It's obvious to everyone, but Philo Vance, now that the person who murdered Hammle was the same one who murdered GardenAs Philo starts to put all the pieces together he sets off an number of evens that end up with the elegant and globe trotting, as well as good friend of Hammle, Major Fenwick-Ralston, H.B Warner, wife Madge, Frida Inescort, herself getting killed! Madge like, Floyd Garden, seemed to have lost her mind and decided to go out and, as she told her shocked maid, get herself killed! this Medge did by jumping off a double decker bus and getting herself run over in the heavy traffic below!Puzzled by all these weird happenings Philo soon gets to the bottom of all this by simply watching-at the local zoo- together with the late Edger Hammle's niece Zalia Graem, Virginia Bruce, a deadly reticulated python having his lunch a live, he wouldn't touch it if was dead, rabbit! It's not what the big snake ate but how he got his victim to be eaten by him that helped him solve the baffling murder case: With the pythons use of total mind control over his confused rodent victim!Decent Philo Vance flick with newcomer, as Philo, Edmound Lowe in the title role. There's also Jessie Ralph as the loud mouth and bed-ridden pill popping Momma of Edger Hammle who has it in for her nurse Gladys Beeton, Benita Hume, whom she feels is falling down on the job. As it turned out Nurse Beeton was blackmailing Momma Hammle's son in revealing an affair he was having with a married woman friend of his. There's also Net Pendlton as police Sergeant Ernest Heath who despite being given charge of solving the case screws everything up to the point where he almost has the actual killer get away Scot-free. Pendelton will later become immortalized in the Dr. Kildare and Dr. Gillespie series as the not so bright and bumbling Blair General Hospital, he seemed to be the only one in the entire sprawling medical facility, ambulance driver Joe Wayman.

S.S. Van Dine must have been a shrewd businessman in dealing with Hollywood. Most of the film series' from the studio days were usually confined to one or two studios. But apparently Van Dine must have sold his rights to each book about Philo Vance one at a time. Note that Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, and more all released Philo Vance films. Only Tarzan seemed to get around Hollywood more.MGM produced the Garden Murder Case and starred Edmund Lowe as the fashionable detective. Of course MGM had the screen's original Philo under contract at the time, but Bill Powell was busy doing The Thin Man at the time and I guess Louis B. Mayer decided to concentrate him there.Edmund Lowe is a pretty acceptable Philo Vance. Lowe had started out pretty big at the tail end of the silent era with What Price Glory and then with a string of films with Victor McLaglen with their Flagg and Quirt characters. But after McLaglen got his Oscar for The Informer, Lowe seemed to fade into the B picture market. The Garden Murder Case involves three separate victims, Douglas Walton, Gene Lockhart, and Frieda Inescourt. The sinister atmosphere around the perpetrator kind of gives it away, the mystery is really how all the killings are connected and how they are accomplished.I will say this though. Vance takes a very big chance in exposing the villain and the last 15 minutes are worthy of Hitchcock.