THE PHILO VANCE LOST FILMS COLLECTION - 5 DVD - 5 MOVIES & TV PILOT Philo Vance is a fictional character featured in 12 crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine (the pen name of Willard Huntington Wright), published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent. The novels were chronicled by his friend Van Dine (who appears as a kind of Dr. Watson figure in the books as well as the author). Films about Vance were made from the late 1920s to the late 1940s, with some more faithful to the literary character than others. Among the several actors who played 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. The Philo Vance novels were particularly well suited for the movies, 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. Three radio drama series were created with Philo Vance as the title character. The first series, broadcast by NBC in 1945, starred José Ferrer. A summer replacement series in 1946 starred John Emery as Vance. The best-known series (and the one of which most episodes survived) ran from 1948-1950 in Frederick Ziv syndication and starred Jackson Beck. "Thankfully, the radio series uses only the name, and makes Philo a pretty normal, though very intelligent and extremely These films were originally produced long before the advent of High Definition TV, therefore they are best viewed on a small screen. HD TVs tend to stretch and skew the picture. Set your HD TV on 4:3 aspect ratio. (That was the old TV format). Please do not expect DVD or Commercial level DVDs from these films. Films List: PLEASE BE AWARE: This collection includes 5 movies, 1 TV Pilot. Starring William Powell: The Canary Murder Case (1929) The Greene Murder Case (1929) The Benson Murder Case (1930) The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939 The Kennel Murder Case (1933) THESE ARE REGULAR DVD-R DELIVERED IN A BOX SET WITH ART WORK Bay’s Public Domain policy: These movies are in the public domain. Thousands of Hollywood motion pictures are in the Public Domain because they were released without Copyright Notices, never registered with the Library of Congress, had improper or late registrations; or were not properly renewed under the old requirements for films made before 1964. The status of films registered from 1929 through 1956 is noted in 3 volumes of Copyright Catalogs of motion picture registrations published by the Library of Congress.