Rosalind Russell once described this movie as "A real bomb! The worst picture I ever made!" And it must be admitted that the professional critics also were not kind. Paul Lukas came off a distinct second best in all comparisons with William Powell's interpretations of Philo Vance (and of course in Powell's 1930 "Benson Murder Case", Lukas plays one of the principal suspects). All the same, I enjoyed this entry. Despite Edwin L. Marin's competent but rather ordinary direction, Alison Skipworth and Isabel Jewell give absolutely marvelous performances! And there's solid support from a more than able roster of some of our favorite character players, particularly Arthur Byron and Ted Healy. The script is reasonably taut and suspenseful. And the movie is attractively dressed up with all M-G-M's usual polish. What more can you ask?

Rosalind Russell saves this movie from being just another '30s mystery out of the mystery machine. Paul Lukas, despite his panache is not a good Philo Vance because of his accent. This is more of a romantic "screwball comedy" type of film than a mystery, but taken in that aspect, it's pretty good. The auction scenes and Alison Skipworth are wonderful. The chemistry between the unflappable Russell and Mr. Lukas is really neat, although in the novels romance never got in the way of a good murder. Whether played by Ted Healy or Eugene Palette, poor Sgt. Ernest Heath never got a fair shake. In the books he was never quite the boob portrayed on the screen. The Casino Murder Case is worth viewing if for nothing but to watch Rosalind Russell on top of her game.

Something new and a bit jarring was added to the Philo Vance series, a Philo Vance with an accent. In his one and only time playing S.S. Van Dine's fictional detective Paul Lukas plays a continental Philo, as charming as ever with a mind like a steel trap. Not quite William Powell or Warren William the best of the Vances.The reason why so many actors played Vance is that the estate of S.S. Van Dine sold the novels one at a time to various studios. Paramount, Warner Brothers, MGM, and last the B picture studio PRC all filmed various Vance stores of varying quality.Lukas gets himself involved with the Llewellyn family when he receives a note saying that Donald Cook will be killed at his uncle's casino that night. In fact he is poisoned, but survived. The same cannot be said for some other family members and friends. It takes a while, but Vance has to work through a maze of false clues before solving this one.One of the near victims is Rosalind Russell who said that this B film marked the first time she was given star billing in a film. She wasn't particularly fond of The Casino Murder Case, but in fact it did lead to better parts for her.Some of the others in the cast are Ted Healy as the garrulous Sergeant Heath, Louise Fazenda as a nosy maid, Isabell Jewell as an alcoholic daughter, Allison Skipworth as the family matriarch, Arthur Byron as the casino owner and Skipworth's brother, Leo G. Carroll as the butler, and Eric Blore as Lukas's valet. We see too little of him in The Casino Murder Case. The cast all perform as typed.Charles Sellon plays the Medical Examiner Dr. Doremus. He's a particularly important character in this film. It's all in the how here.

During the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood produced a long string of B-detective films such as Charlie Chan, the Falcon, Boston Blackie and Sherlock Holmes. One of these series that never seem to catch on despite many films in the series were the Philo Vance films. Now a few of them were very good and the series seemed to be going very well at first but unfortunately there was never a single actor to carry the films--and there were many different Philo Vances which confused the public and prevented their acceptance. As I said, it started well and those with William Powell were excellent, but after several films the studios replaced him with a wide variety of stars that never quite had the elegance and charm of Powell. Warren William (also of the Lone Wolf series), Grant Richards, Basil Rathbone, William Wright, Edmund Lowe and many others tried to fill his shoes, but with only indifferent results.About the strangest of the stars to play the role, though, was Paul Lukas. Now Lukas WAS a good actor but unfortunately he was also Hungarian and sounded much like Bela Lugosi!! This was definitely NOT the Philo Vance the public had come to expect, as he'd always been played by Americans or Brits! As a result, no matter how much Lukas tried, the film was bound to fail and I think it's among the worst of the Vance films I have seen. Now not all of this was due to Lukas, though he was pretty poor. The studio also managed to waste poor old Eric Blore who usually is a great supporting character who infuses some needed humor into a film. Here, he simply wasn't given a chance to get laughs or contribute much to the film.The plot itself wasn't bad, and the conclusion worked very well because I loved the bad guy's maniacal laugh as well as the way that Vance arranged for this guy to be killed, not captured! These interesting and off-beat aspects of the film manage to help the overall effort to be watchable, but that is all.FYI--Watch and listen to a young Rosalind Russell showing off her British accent. Before she was an established American star, she often used a British accent and sounded so convincing I really thought she might have been from the UK. Good job Roz!