Episode 176 - Philo Philes (Philo Vance)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Jack Mooney

Tv & Film, Performing Arts, Arts

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2016

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Brilliant, handsome, and foppish, amateur sleuth Philo Vance went through some character makeovers as he jumped from the pages of S.S. Van Dine's detective novels to the big screen and later to radio. Jackson Beck played Vance as a nearly hard-boiled private eye, but his two earliest radio incarnations stuck a bit closer to the character from the source material. We'll hear two of Philo Vance's first on-air adventures. First, John Emery plays Vance in "The Case of the Cellini Cup" (originally aired on NBC on April 29, 1943). Then, Jose Ferrer is Philo in "The Case of the Strange Music" (originally aired on NBC on August 9, 1945).

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Amateur Detective Philovance was dubbed the most assign character in detective fiction by no less than Raymond Chandler.
0:31.0	In novels written by SS Van Dyne, Vance was a snobbish intellectual, an expert in everything from history to dog grooming, as insufferable as he was insightful.
0:43.0	That may be selling the character short, but his affectations were a major part of his portrayal in novels,
0:50.0	right down to the monocle he was rarely seen without.
0:52.8	When he made the leap to the big screen, some of Vance's more irritating tendencies were toned down
0:59.4	in performances by, among others, William Powell, Warren William, and Basil Rathbone.
1:06.5	They were toned down even more in the syndicated Philo Vance radio series, where Vance was
1:12.3	more hard-boiled private eye than Foppish dilatant.
1:16.0	It's that series that may be the best known, but there were two earlier attempts to bring
1:21.7	the sleuth to the airwaves.
1:24.1	And while the syndicated show had more success and a longer run, those first shows are better
1:30.0	at presenting Phylovans as a character, Warts and all.
1:34.8	When Frederick W. Ziv, pioneer of syndicated programming, launched his take on Philovans, he
1:41.2	cast Jackson Beck as the title character.
1:45.0	Beck was a busy and accomplished radio actor.
1:47.7	He played the Sisko kid and he memorably narrated the Adventures of Superman. On the Ziv show, Vance worked out of a downtown
1:56.5	office with an ever loyal secretary, and though he remained a brilliant detective, he was a bit
2:01.9	more grounded and relatable. But he was a bit more grounded and relatable but he was a cipher as a character he wasn't glib like Sam Spade and his bravado didn't hide Philip Marlow's heart of gold was stiff, even if he wasn't so snooty.
2:16.8	Before Jackson Beck, Vylovance first came to radio in 1943 with John Emory starring as the detective. Of the radio
2:25.7	Vances, Emory's performance may come closest to capturing the character from the
2:30.5	books. His narration and descriptions of his fellow characters tells from the involved in this. John FX Markham, the district attorney, is an old friend of mine and
2:44.6	bright and early the morning after Gettman was murdered, much too bright and much too early.
	...

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