For Philo Vance fans (if any there be), TCM will be showing a mini-marathon of six films featuring the sleuth on Wednesday. Hollywood eventually generated fourteen films with Vance at least nominally involved in the action—with emphasis on "action," because the cerebral sleuth rapidly metamorphosed into a James Bond-style troubleshooter, a far cry from his original inception. The film that most closely approximates S. S. Van Dine’s intentions is probably The Kennel Murder Case.
And one should always remember Ogden Nash’s appraisal of the character:
Philo Vance
Needs a kick in the pance.
Also be on the lookout for the droll and seldom-seen The Wrong Box.
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Monday—May 25th
War films all day.
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Tuesday—May 26th
1:15 PM—Naked City (1948)
A step-by-step look at a murder investigation on the streets of New York.
Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Don Taylor
BW-96 mins, TV-14
3:00 PM—Brute Force (1947)
Tough, disgruntled prisoners plan a daring, possibly bloody escape while on a drain pipe detail.
Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford
BW-98 mins, TV-14
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Wednesday—May 27th
2:00 AM—Badge 373 (1973)
A suspended cop sets out to avenge his partner’s murder.
Robert Duvall, Verna Bloom, Henry Darrow
BW-116 mins, TV-MA
6:00 AM—The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case (1930)
A fishing trip leads Laurel and Hardy to a mansion where a murder has been committed.
Frank Austin, Stanley Blystone, Robert ‘Bobby’ Burns
BW-30 mins.
6:30 AM—The Bishop Murder Case (1930)
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a series of murders inspired by Mother Goose rhymes.
Basil Rathbone, Leila Hyams, Roland Young
BW-87 mins, TV-G
8:00 AM—The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a murder tied to a Long Island dog show.
William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette
BW-73 mins, TV-G
9:15 AM—The Dragon Murder Case (1934)
Society sleuth Philo Vance looks into a murder near a mysterious "dragon pool."
Warren William, Margaret Lindsay, Lyle Talbot
BW-67 mins, TV-PG
Synopsis (SPOILERS).
10:30 AM—The Casino Murder Case (1935)
Society sleuth Philo Vance takes on a series of murders at an aging dowager’s mansion.
Paul Lukas, Alison Skipworth, Rosalind Russell
BW-83 mins, TV-G
12:00 PM—The Garden Murder Case (1936)
Society sleuth Philo Vance suspects dirty doings behind a mysterious series of suicides.
Edmund Lowe, Virginia Bruce, Benita Hume
BW-61 mins, TV-G
Synopsis (SPOILERS).
1:15 PM—Calling Philo Vance (1939)
Society sleuth Philo Vance tangles with foreign agents when he investigates the murder of an aircraft manufacturer.
James Stephenson, Margot Stevenson, Henry O’Neill
BW-62 mins, TV-G
Synopsis (SPOILERS).
2:30 PM—Call of the Jungle (1944)
An amateur detective in the South Seas tries to track down a pair of jewel thieves.
Ann Corio, James Bush, Claudia Dell
BW-60 mins, TV-PG
Synopsis (SPOILERS).
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Thursday—May 28th
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Friday—May 29th
6:15 AM—Bluebeard (1944)
A 19th-century Parisian puppeteer is killing the young women he employs.
John Carradine, Jean Parker, Nils Asther
BW-70 mins, TV-PG
7:30 AM—The Woman in Green (1945)
Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of seemingly unrelated murders.
Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Henry Daniell
BW-67 mins, TV-G
8:45 AM—The Blue Dahlia (1946)
A veteran fights to prove he didn’t kill his cheating wife.
Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix
BW-99 mins, TV-PG
Synopsis (SPOILERS). Poster art.
10:30 AM—Gilda (1946)
A gambler discovers an old flame in South America, but she’s married to his new boss.
Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready
BW-110 mins, TV-PG
12:30 PM—Hollow Triumph (1948) (a. k. a. The Scar)
A crook on the lam poses as a psychiatrist.
Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz
BW-83 mins, TV-PG
2:00 PM—The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.
Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane
BW-87 mins, TV-PG
3:30 PM—The Big Heat (1953)
A police detective whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a scarred gangster’s moll to bring down a powerful gangster.
Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin
BW-90 mins, TV-14
5:00 PM—The Bigamist (1953)
A woman discovers her husband has another family in another city.
Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino, Edmond O’Brien
BW-79 mins, TV-PG
6:30 PM—Man in the Attic (1953)
A landlady suspects her mysterious new tenant might be Jack the Ripper.
Jack Palance, Constance Smith, Frances Bavier
BW-82 mins, TV-PG
Article. Poster art.
10:15 PM—The Great Train Robbery (1979)
Three crooks plot to steal a fortune in gold from a moving train.
Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Ann Down
C-111 mins, TV-MA
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Saturday—May 30th
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Sunday—May 31st
1:15 AM—The Wrong Box (1966)
Two elderly brothers plot to kill each other for a fortune.
John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook
C-106 mins, TV-PG
8:00 AM—The Letter (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson
BW-95 mins, TV-PG
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—Mike Gray
I may be remembering badly, not having seen the film in several years, but I seem to recall that it followed the plot rather better than I had expected. The tone of the film is typically mid-1960s British zaniness–think Tom Jones, etc.–as is rather to be expected given the presence of Cook and Moore.
If The Wrong Box is anywhere near Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella in plotline, this should be a wild film. Stevenson made my head spin.
Bob