Calling Philo Vance (1940)

Directed by

William Clemens

Genre

mystery film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 02m

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 13 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A government agent investigates a ring stealing aircraft designs during wartime. The detective uses his intellect to solve the mystery while trading banter with the police.

light-heartedwittyintriguingbriskclevercasualsuspenseful

What happens

Calling Philo Vance is a 1940 American mystery/comedy film produced by Warner Bros. starring James Stephenson as the dilettante detective Philo Vance, his only appearance as the character; Margot Stevenson, Henry O'Neill, Edward Brophy, Sheila Bromley and Ralph Forbes appear in support. 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. For this adaptation of the story, Vance is on an international assignment with the United States government to investigate traffic in wartime aircraft designs. The original story dealt with art world double-dealing, but the solution to the mystery is the same in both films. Sgt. Heath, Vance's usual police irritant, is renamed Ryan. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Meet the Wildcat (1940)
• Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1940)
• Meet Maxwell Archer (1940)
• Bulldog Sees It Through (1940)
• Gallant Sons (1940)
• Secrets of the Lone Wolf (1940)
• Doomed to Die (1940)
• Smashing the Money Ring (1939)