The Case of the Howling Dog Review: Warren William is a delightfully sleazy Perry Mason

If you have eighty minutes to kill tonight and want to see a lawyer who acts more like a slick con man than a defender of justice, yes, watch this. Mystery nerds and lovers of fast-talking 1930s cinema will have a blast. But if you are expecting the cozy, slow-paced courtroom drama of the old TV show, you are going to absolutely hate Warren William's version of Perry Mason. 🐕

This is actually the very first Perry Mason movie ever made. And honestly? It is wild how different this guy is from the Raymond Burr version we all grew up with.

Warren William plays Mason with this smug, pencil-thin mustache energy that makes him look like he just stole your wallet and is about to sell it back to you. He is constantly pouring drinks from a globe-shaped bar in his office and flirting with his secretary, Della Street.

The whole plot kicks off because this incredibly sweaty, nervous guy named Arthur Cartright bursts into Mason's office. He is completely obsessed with his neighbor's howling dog.

He wants to write a will leaving everything to his neighbor's wife, but only if the dog gets put down. It is the kind of bizarre, highly specific setup that only old mystery novels can pull off.

Then, of course, someone gets murdered. And the movie gets really messy, really fast.

We get swapped wives, secret identities, and a very confused police force. Mary Astor is in this too, playing one of the wives.

She has this cold, blank stare that makes you instantly suspect her of everything, even before the crime happens. I love how she barely blinks in her close-ups.

There is a sidekick character named Spudsy Drake, played by Allen Jenkins. He is supposed to be the comic relief, but he mostly just grunts and looks lost.

Honestly, his character feels like he wandered off the set of a slapstick short like Perfect Day and just decided to hang out in a detective office. The pacing is so fast it feels like everyone is running to catch a train.

Scenes just cut off in the middle of a thought. One minute they are in a mansion, the next they are in a courtroom, and suddenly a dog is being brought in as a witness.

Oh, about the dog. It is played by a dog named Lightning, who is supposed to be this terrifying, howling beast of doom.

But on screen, he just looks like a very good boy who is slightly confused by the bright studio lights. The "howling" sound effect they use is hilariously fake.

It sounds like a guy in the back of the studio doing a bad impression of a wolf. There is a moment where Perry Mason literally tricks a witness by hiding a dog under a table.

It is completely illegal and would get any real lawyer disbarred instantly. But here, the judge just kind of shrugs and lets it happen.

That is the beauty of these pre-code era films. They do not care about the rules of law or even basic logic; they just want to get to the next twist.

The courtroom scene is incredibly cramped. It feels like they could only afford about ten extras to sit in the gallery.

If you look closely at the back row, the same guy in a grey suit seems to be sitting in two different places because of a bad edit. I love finding tiny mistakes like that.

It makes the whole thing feel so much more alive than the polished CGI stuff we get now. Anyway, do not expect a masterpiece, but if you want a fun, slightly ridiculous mystery that moves at ninety miles an hour, give it a look.