just watch it!

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The setup is intriguing (a man dives into a pool and never comes up again; when they drain the pool he's nowhere to be found! I've seen a lot of mysteries and I don't remember ever seeing anything like this before), the mystery is challenging (of course you know that the killer is not really a dragon, but that does not help you much), the spacious sets are great, and the underwater camera shots are impressive for a 1934 film. However, Warren William is a little too dry in the role of Philo Vance (he is more relaxed in his second Vance appearance, in the semi-spoof "The Gracie Allen Murder Case"), and the film is not quite as much fun as it could have been. I would still recommend it to fans of early whodunits. **1/2 out of 4.

**SPOILERS** When young Monty Montague, George Meeker, disappeared in the Stamm Estate pond while taking a moonlight dip it was at first assumed that he drowned and was stuck, in the thick mud, underneath.It was when the pond was drained out that to the surprise of everyone present there was absolutely no Monty there! This is when ace sleuth Philo Vance, Warren William, who accompanied the police to the Stamm Estate went into action. With rumors of a dragon, or Locke Ness-like monster, living in the pond it at first is believed that Monty ended up being killed and eaten by it. As Philo started to uncover the evidence of Monty's strange disappearance, as well as Monty's badly torn up body,it became evident that he was the victim of foul play. Not by any sea monster or mythical dragon but someone who really had it in for poor old Monty. Someone who Monty was blackmailing and who just got sick and tired of being under his thumb!***SPOILERS***The key to Monty's demise had to do with his engagement to Bernice Stamm, Margarte Lindsey. It was handsome and debonair, as well as expert swimmer, Dale Leland, Lyle Talbot, who was in loved with Bernice and the fact that she had dropped him for Monty made him a prime suspect in Monty's murder. It took a while for Philo to get a hang on things but it was a secret key, to the Stamm Family Mausoleum, that open the door to who really killed Monty. The key not only revealed Monty's murdered but also the reason he was murdered. It also reviled the way he was murdered and who, beside the actual murderer, secretly set him up to be murdered!A bit dry, despite all the water in it, Philo Vance mystery with Warren William as Philo sleepwalking through his role as the famous fictional detective. The nonchalant and effortless way that Warren solved this very difficult murder of Monty Montague took all the tension and suspense out of the film. What really did save the movie and made it interesting was the "Old Lady" of the house or estate the daffy and fuddled brain Mrs. Stamm, Helen Lowell. It was Mrs. Stamm who unknowingly solved this very baffling murder case by her getting Philo on the right track without her not even knowing, in her thinking it was the underwater dragon, who the killer really was!

This is a rather aimless mystery, with an implausible murder and an utterly impossible solution, requiring the witnesses to the murder to be death dumb and blind, and the corpse of the murdered to be light as a feather. But that's not especially unusual in mysteries of the era.The problem is that this one is, by its story, stuck on a limited number of sets, and the dialog is not enough to sustain interest over the rather brief run time. Performances are fine -- no better than one would expect -- on par with an average episode of Murder She Wrote.It's really not worth sitting through this one to get to the solution. (Nor is it worth searching out the book -- which is just as implausible and dull) If you really like SS Van Dine, and are determined to stick it out, there is one virtue -- the components of the murder plot that don't relate to the dragon and the swimming pool are neatly done.

Spoilers herein.'I'm a coroner, not a philosopher!'These things drive me crazy because they don't play fair. They set up the situation, display a few bodies then surprise us with a completely implausible solution that hasn't been hinted at all. Does it seem plausible that a murderer would try to frame a dragon?The story within the story is the fiction of the dragon.The only charm that these can give us is in a few interesting characters and an exotic setup. I did think this setup was among the strangest of the Vancers. But the characters are among the least successful.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.