The Case of the Howling Dog, the first of the screen's Perry Mason movies moves quickly with pep and zip, has a rather ingenious plot line, and has Warren William give a good portrayal of the most famous lawyer of all time - real or imaginary. Warren William plays Mason in this film with an aloofness that disappears in later films where he played the same role, but in this first film it is primarily used to show us how important Mason is in San Francisco. The story has a nervous wreck of a man go to Mason to ask two questions - what can he do to stop the incessant howling from the next door neighbor's dog and what does he have to do to set up a will(with some further odd questions). Perry now has a case and we get some good old-fashioned mystery here as Mason and his corp of assistants work for their client. The end mystery's unraveling - though hardly realistic - is done with style and creativity. I have not read the Erle Stanley Gardner book, but I am sure that much of the mystery part of it is probably still intact. Beautiful Mary Astor stars as a woman in need of Mason's services. She gives her typical woman-in-peril performance with solid acting. The rest of the cast also all do fine jobs with Helen Trenholme(apparently only making two films in her career) doing a very fine job as a perky and pretty Della Street and Gordon Westcott excelling as the nervous man in a rather brief role. As first films in a detective series go, this one is a fine start to a good series. Warren William, playing the screen's Philo Vance that same year, does his level best to make two distinct characterizations which may also account for the Mason character being a bit stodgy here. In the next film he becomes much more fun and human so to speak.