Infamous Crimes

1542. INFAMOUS CRIMES (PHILO VANCE RETURNS) (1947-USA). With WILLIAM WRIGHT,TERRY AUSTIN LEON BELASCO, CLARA BLANDICK. Directed by WILLIAM BEAUDINE. “How do you feel about having four wives?Ó playboy Larry Blendon is asked. “Tired,” is his response. Yet Blendon has chosen to many again. His fiancŽe is a nice, sweet, unspoiled radio singer. As Blendon is dropping her off at her doorstep after a night on the town, a hand appears out of the shadows, clutching a gun-and the girl is shot dead. Upon his arrival home from police head quarters, Blendon phones a friend, the famed detective PHILO VANCE. Their conversation has barely begun when Blendon is shotÑright between the eyes. Vance quickly learns that Blendon had written a will in which he stated that, upon his demise, each of his ex-wives would receive a fortune-with $2-million set aside to be divided among the sole-survivors when the will is probated. As the corpses start piling up, the detective must sniff out a greedy devious killer-whose identity is not as obvious as one would assume. Philo Vance, the sophisticated master sleuth created by S.S. VAN DINE, was the hero of over a dozen features released over a twenty year period. This one proves to be a solid, suspenseful, mystery; it’s a real treat for fans of 1940s-style Hollywood whodunits. 63 minutes. Crime Mystery Suspense