Mary Louise Brooks was an American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career.
Margaret Livingston, sometimes credited as Marguerite Livingstone or Margaret Livingstone, was an American film actress and businesswoman during the silent film era. She is remembered today as "the Woman from the City" in F. W. Murnau's 1927 film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.
Philo Vance is a fictional amateur detective originally featured in 12 crime novels by S. S. Van Dine in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, films, and radio. He was portrayed as a stylish—even foppish—dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent. "S. S. Van Dine" was the pen name of Willard Huntington Wright, a prominent art critic who initially sought to conceal his authorship of the novels. Van Dine was also a fictional character in the books, a sort of Dr. Watson figure who accompanied Vance and chronicled his exploits.
The "Canary" Murder Case (1927) is a murder mystery novel which deals with the murders of an attractive nightclub singer known as "the Canary," and, eventually, her boyfriend, solved by Philo Vance. S. S. Van Dine's classic whodunnit, second in the Philo Vance series, is said by Howard Haycraft to have broken "all modern publishing records for detective fiction." The earliest editions give the title with quotation marks around the word "Canary", but most subsequent editions omit them.
Blackmail is a 1929 British thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard. Based on the 1928 play of the same name by Charles Bennett, the film is about a London woman who is blackmailed after killing a man who tries to rape her.
The Benson Murder Case is the first novel in the Philo Vance series of mystery novels by S. S. Van Dine, which became a best-seller.
Frank Wright Tuttle was a Hollywood film director and writer who directed films from 1922 to 1959.
The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case is a Laurel and Hardy pre-Code comedy film released in 1930. It is one of a handful of three-reel comedies they made, running 28 minutes. It was directed by James Parrott, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
From 1929 to 1931, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a series of nine short comedy films called All Barkie Dogville Comedies, sometimes known as the "barkies". The actors in these films were trained dogs, dressed up to parody the performers in contemporary films. The dogs' dialogues in these early sound films were dubbed by actors and voice artists including Pete Smith.
The Kennel Murder Case is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery film adapted from the 1933 novel of the same name by S. S. Van Dine. Directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros., it stars William Powell and Mary Astor. Powell's role as Philo Vance is not the actor's first performance as the aristocratic sleuth; he also portrays the character in three films produced by Paramount in 1929 and 1930.
Interference is a 1928 American pre-Code drama film directed by Lothar Mendes, as Paramount Pictures' first feature-length all-talking motion picture. It stars Clive Brook, William Powell, Evelyn Brent, and Doris Kenyon, all making their sound film debuts. In England, when a first husband turns out not to be dead, blackmail leads to murder.
Calling Philo Vance is a 1940 American mystery/comedy film released by Warner Bros. and starring James Stephenson as the dilettante detective Philo Vance, his only appearance as the character; Margot Stevenson co-stars. The film also features Henry O'Neill, Edward Brophy, Sheila Bromley and Ralph Forbes. It was directed by William Clemens from a screenplay by Tom Reed, based on the 1933 novel The Kennel Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine, which had been made into a film in 1933, starring William Powell and Mary Astor.
The Bishop Murder Case is a 1929 American pre-Code mystery film directed by David Burton and Nick Grinde and starring Basil Rathbone, Leila Hyams and Roland Young. Ten years before assuming his role as Sherlock Holmes in a series of 14 films, Rathbone essayed the character of S.S. Van Dine's detective Philo Vance in this single outing.
The Greene Murder Case is a 1929 talking film produced and released by Paramount Pictures and based on the novel The Greene Murder Case, by S.S. Van Dine. The novel had been published a year before this film was made. It stars William Powell in his second Philo Vance outing. Florence Eldridge and Jean Arthur costar.
The Casino Murder Case is a 1935 American mystery film starring Paul Lukas and Alison Skipworth. Rosalind Russell is in the supporting cast. It was directed by Edwin L. Marin from a screenplay by Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by S. S. Van Dine. It was the ninth film in the Philo Vance film series.
The Garden Murder Case is a 1936 American mystery drama film, the tenth in the Philo Vance film series, following after 1935's The Casino Murder Case. In this entry to the series, Vance is played by Edmund Lowe, and Virginia Bruce co-stars. The film also features Benita Hume, Douglas Walton, and Nat Pendleton. It was directed by Edwin L. Marin from a screenplay by Bertram Millhauser based on the 1935 book of the same name by S. S. Van Dine.
The Scarab Murder Case is a 1936 film directed by Michael Hankinson. It is part of a series of films about fictional detective Philo Vance. Paramount Pictures intended for William Powell to portray the character, as he had in three prior Paramount films - The Canary Murder Case (1929), The Greene Murder Case (1929) and The Benson Murder Case (1930) - as well as The Kennel Murder Case (1933) for Warner Bros. However, Powell changed studios, and the role went to Wilfrid Hyde-White.
The Benson Murder Case is a 1930 American pre-Code crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and written by S. S. Van Dine and Bartlett Cormack. The film stars William Powell, William "Stage" Boyd, Eugene Pallette, Paul Lukas, Natalie Moorhead, Richard Tucker and May Beatty. The film was released on April 13, 1930, by Paramount Pictures. The film was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by S. S. Van Dine. The film had initial copyright notice, and it was renewed in 1957. Under the terms of Title 17 of the U.S. Code, the film will enter the public domain in 2026.
The Gracie Allen Murder Case is a 1939 American comedy mystery film taken from the Philo Vance series by writer S.S. Van Dine and directed by Alfred E. Green from a screenplay by Nat Perrin. The film stars the female member of the comedy duo Burns and Allen Gracie Allen, Warren William, Ellen Drew, Kent Taylor, Judith Barrett, Donald MacBride and Jed Prouty. The film was released on June 2, 1939, by Paramount Pictures.
The Charlatan is a 1929 sound part-talkie film directed by George Melford for Universal Pictures. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Western Electric sound-on-film system. The film starred Holmes E. Herbert, Margaret Livingston and Rockliffe Fellowes. The film is based on the 1923 play The Charlatan by Leonard Praskins and Ernest Pascal.
