Literature - Philo Vance

Films about Vance were made from the late 1920s to the late 1940s, with some more faithful to the literary character than others. Fictional narrator S.S. Van Dine, who acts as a passive eyewitness to events in the novels, does not appear in the films. Among the several actors who played Philo Vance on the screen were William Powell, Warren William and Basil Rathbone, all of whom had great success playing other detectives in movies. The movie The Canary Murder Case is famous for a contract dispute that eventually helped sink the career of star Louise Brooks.

William Powell did not enjoy playing Philo Vance, finding the role devoid of the complexity of a truly human character. After three Philo Vance films at Paramount, he flatly refused to play the role again. Later, at Warner Brothers, he was cajoled into making The Kennel Murder Case, due to studio pressure and the lack of more interesting scripts. A few years later Powell was offered The Casino Murder Case at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer into which a part was written for Myrna Loy as Vance's girlfriend, but Powell refused this film as well.^[6]

On Philo Vance as a role, Powell stated:

The opportunities of a detective on the screen are too limited. What is his main function? To solve the crime. And how does he do it? By thinking. So we have him standing up and thinking, sitting down and thinking, lying down and thinking, ad nauseam. He is practically the only member of the cast without a chance for dramatic action or outstanding characterization. The interest revolves about him, true enough—but he is like a rock in the center of a whirlpool. He doesn't have a chance to act!^[7]

The Philo Vance novels were particularly well suited for films, where the more unpleasantly affected aspects of the main character could be toned down and the complex plots given more prominence. One of these films, The Kennel Murder Case, has been called a masterpiece by renowned film historian William K. Everson.

The Canary Murder Case (1929) with William Powell
The Greene Murder Case (1929) with William Powell
The Bishop Murder Case (1929) with Basil Rathbone
The Benson Murder Case (1930) with William Powell
The Kennel Murder Case (1933) with William Powell
The Dragon Murder Case (1934) with Warren William
The Casino Murder Case (1935) with Paul Lukas
The Garden Murder Case (1936) with Edmund Lowe
The Scarab Murder Case (1936) with Wilfrid Hyde-White (lost film^[8])
Night of Mystery (1937) (based on The Greene Murder Case) with Grant Richards
The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939) with Warren William as Philo Vance, billed below Gracie Allen
Calling Philo Vance (1940) (a remake of The Kennel Murder Case with an altered setting) with James Stephenson
Philo Vance Returns (1947) with William Wright
Philo Vance's Gamble (1947) with Alan Curtis
Philo Vance's Secret Mission (1947) with Alan Curtis

The plots of the final three films bear no relationship to any of the novels and very little relationship to the Philo Vance character of the novels.

Philo Vance (William Powell) also appears in the "Murder Will Out" comic vignette of Paramount on Parade (1930), wherein Vance and Sgt. Heath (Eugene Pallette), along with fellow detective Sherlock Holmes (Clive Brook), go up against Fu Manchu (Warner Oland). Holmes and Fu Manchu were featured in their own respective series at Paramount at this time.

Vance is mentioned in The Stolen Jools, an all-star film short produced by Paramount in 1931 to promote fundraising for the National Vaudeville Artists Tuberculosis Sanitarium, but does not appear.

In the trailer for the first The Thin Man film in 1934, Powell plays both Vance and Nick Charles via split screen, as Charles tells Vance about the mystery he solves in the movie. At the time, The Thin Man's studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, had not produced a Philo Vance film since 1930, and the property was at that time contracted to Warner Bros. MGM regained the rights for 1935's The Casino Murder Case, but Powell did not appear in that film.

Vance was also mentioned in The Lady Eve (1941).

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