The Kennel Murder Case, due to studio pressure and the lack of more interesting scripts. A few years later Powell was offered The Casino Murder Case at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer into which a part was written for Myrna Loy as Vance's girlfriend, but Powell refused this film as well. On Philo Vance as a role, Powell stated: The Philo Vance novels were particularly well suited for films, 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. The Canary Murder Case (1929) with William Powell The Greene Murder Case (1929) with William Powell The Bishop Murder Case (1929) with Basil Rathbone The Benson Murder Case (1930) with William Powell The Kennel Murder Case (1933) with William Powell The Dragon Murder Case (1934) with Warren William The Casino Murder Case (1935) with Paul Lukas The Garden Murder Case (1936) with Edmund Lowe The Scarab Murder Case (1936) with Wilfrid Hyde-White (lost film) Night of Mystery (1937) (based on The Greene Murder Case) with Grant Richards The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939) with Warren William as Philo Vance, billed below Gracie Allen Calling Philo Vance (1940) (a remake of The Kennel Murder Case with an altered setting) with James Stephenson Philo Vance Returns (1947) with William Wright Philo Vance's Gamble (1947) with Alan Curtis Philo Vance's Secret Mission (1947) with Alan Curtis The plots of the final three films bear no relationship to any of the novels and very little relationship to the Philo Vance character of the novels. Philo Vance (William Powell) also appears in the "Murder Will Out" comic vignette of Paramount on Parade (1930), wherein Vance and Sgt. Heath (Eugene Pallette), along with fellow detective Sherlock Holmes (Clive Brook), go up against Fu Manchu (Warner Oland). Holmes and Fu Manchu were featured in their own respective series at Paramount at this time. Vance is mentioned in The Stolen Jools, an all-star film short produced by Paramount in 1931 to promote fundraising for the National Vaudeville Artists Tuberculosis Sanitarium, but does not appear. In the trailer for the first The Thin Man film in 1934, Powell plays both Vance and Nick Charles via split screen, as Charles tells Vance about the mystery he solves in the movie. At the time, The