The Perry Mason series of mysteries from the 1930s are some of the best mysteries one could watch. One needs to pay attention to details throughout the film to follow the twists in the plot. The movies closely follow the Erle Stanley Gardner mystery novels on which they are based. The Case of the Howling Dog holds one's interest from beginning to end as Perry Mason cleverly addresses the case of a woman accused of murder. Warren William is a pleasure to watch as Perry Mason, and Helen Trehnolme expertly plays Perry's faithful and efficient secretary, Della Street. Mary Astor also stars in this selection from the series. If you are a fan of old, intriguing mysteries, you won't be disappointed with this gem.

Perry Mason runs a big operation: Windows all across the front of his office building feature his name printed in big letters. He's so successful he can't even handle every case personally. –Such is our introduction to the great lawyer before we even meet him.Warren William is appropriately self-assured as the super-successful lawyer in this classy and well-plotted murder mystery.The complicated story involves a very nervous-looking man named Cartwright (Gordon Westcott) who comes to Mason with questions about his will—and about a neighbor's dog that has been howling for 48 hours. We soon learn that that neighbor, Clinton Foley (Russell Hicks), had once run off with Cartwright's wife…Cartwright had sworn to get even with them both and tracked them down and moved in next door….and soon enough the man Foley is shot dead in his house.The murder scene is particularly well done: We see Foley and his dog in the house, we see Mrs. Foley walk in, and we watch their brief confrontation. And then we hear the shots: We see Mrs. Foley's face and her reaction but not who fired the shots. A door swings shut….Mary Astor is excellent as Mrs. Foley—her expressive face never quite giving away all she is thinking. Allen Jenkins is good as always as the skeptical police sergeant looking for answers. Warren William gives a smooth performance as the masterful investigator whose work and methods are in the interest of justice but not necessarily popular with the police.It's well written and fast moving, too—with an ending that surprised me. Very enjoyable!

Warren William's version of Perry Mason is a far cry from that of Raymond Burr in the popular TV series of the '60s, but he gives it his own brand of humor and charm.THE CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG is more complex than it would seem from an outline of the story. It begins when a man complains to Perry Mason that a howling dog is driving him insane. He's also about to settle his will, leaving his entire state to Mrs. Foley (MARY ASTOR), a next-door neighbor. These two strands of plot keep building toward a very baffling story which only begins to make sense toward the last ten minutes, when Mason starts to unravel the truth.Intereresting tale gets good treatment. It was the first of the Perry Mason movies from Warner Bros. WARREN WILLIAM and MARY ASTOR do nicely in the leads and ALLEN JENKINS plays it straight for a change, as a detective. GRANT MITCHELL as an opposing District Attorney and RUSSELL HICKS as Clinton Foley lend strong support.

The first of six Warner Brothers mountings (the first of four with Warren William as Erle Stanley Gardner's charismatic investigating attorney, Perry Mason), it is frequently held to be the least of the series, but that's probably too harsh a judgment. It still merits rediscovery by anyone fond of the famous character or stylish 30's mysteries. Warren William is a fine first draft for the character TV would take to its heart two decades later.Many sources look at the other great detective series which were springing up in the 1930's from Dashiel Hammett's Nick & Nora Charles (in the popular THE THIN MAN series) to Earl Derr Biggers' Charlie Chan (the second longest running film series ever!) almost as fast as print authors could create new characters - THE CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG went before the cameras barely a year after Mason first hit print - and find the Warners' PERRY MASON series fairly light weight.In truth the series only managed six episodes, with Ricardo Cortez and Donald Woods succeeding William for the final two films. This sort of programmer mystery frequently only ran slightly over an hour and would almost certainly have been done as series television two decades later. The character WAS the basis for a long running daily 15 minute radio series before CBS put Raymond Burr in the role of his career for a marathon run starting in the 1950's and inspired more than two generations of actual attorneys.THE CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG (and the later Warners' Mason films) had the decided advantage of being drawn with some faithfulness from actual Gardner novels. That was one of the chief distinctions as well as one of the weaknesses of this "...DOG;" some confusion over wives among the wealthy and a dog that may or may not be howling in the night. A large portion of the film is given over to novel-like exposition giving the background of the characters and the dispute which will provide the courtroom fireworks in the last 15 to 20 minutes of the film where Perry Mason shows the style he is famous for.Mason has an enormous office in this one (Raymond Burr's Mason would have been jealous) as well as the basic support staff Gardner created which would stay in various forms through all the later Perry Mason incarnations - secretary Della Street (in the Warner Brothers' series her unrequited love would eventually be returned) and Detective Trask among others.Tall, thin Warren William with his pencil mustache (also a striking Sam Spade in the second film version of Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" called Satan MET A LADY) made a fine Perry Mason. Some commentators fault the series for allowing the writers and directors (a different one for each of the six films) to vary the "character" of Mason too much over the three years the series ran, but for the first four films the inherent dignity and intelligence of William proved a foundation almost as interesting as the firm one Burr would provide twenty years later. (Did this actor *ever* look young or innocent? William's craggy visage has even more sophisticated "danger" in it than the today better remembered Humprey Bogart!) The style on this specific Perry Mason entry carries the substance, but the substance is good enough. Give it a look if you can.