William Powell As Philo Vance

Ah, "The Thin Man." What an amazing, wonderful book (as are all five of Dashiell Hammett's novels); and what a glorious, truly stellar film-- one of Hollywood's greatest achievements! Indeed, the entire series of six "Thin Man" films is certainly worth viewing. And very soon-- as of August 2, 2005-- all six Thin Man films will be available on DVD, collected together in a Box Set with a 7th disc of special features. A "must" purchase for any true movie buff.

However, before Nick and Nora Charles ever first debuted on the printed page in 1934, and before William Powell and Myrna Loy were able to bring them to life on the silver screen, later that same year, there was another very famous series of detective books written by "S.S. Van Dine" (Willard Huntington Wright) about the mystery-solving adventures of one, "Philo Vance." And guess who played Philo Vance in the movies? That's correct: it was William Powell. Powell appeared as Philo Vance in at least five films between 1929 and 1933. The first three Philo Vance movies, "The Canary Murder Case" (1929), "The Greene Murder Case" (1929), and "The Benson Murder Case" (1930) are not very good-- they are mainly interesting for being some of the earliest examples of Hollywood's rather awkward transition to "talking pictures." The fourth appearance of Powell's Philo Vance was in "Murder Will Out" which was a short "skit" that was included in the Hollywood Review film called, "Paramount on Parade" (1930). It was quite well done, but very short.

It is not until the final appearance of Powell as Philo Vance in "The Kennel Murder Case" (1933) that this character truly comes into full bloom. "The Kennel Murder Case" is a good film in its own right, and it is a fitting introduction to the film, "The Thin Man," which came out only a year later. Of course, William Powell went on to star in many great films, up until his final film, "Mr. Roberts" (1955), after which he retired from the movies. Interestingly enough, Powell lived almost thirty years beyond his retirement, and died in 1984 at the age of 91. Even though Powell appeared in some excellent films prior to "The Kennel Murder Case," such as, "One Way Passage" of 1932, and "The Road to Singapore" of 1931 (not the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby film), a most excellent place to begin viewing his films is with "The Kennel Murder Case."

--Spencer