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Philo Vance
Philo Vance is a fictional amateur detective originally featured in 12 crime novels by S. S. Van Dine in the 1920s and '30s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, films, and radio. He was portrayed as a stylish—even foppish—dandy, a New York ''bon vivant'' possessing a highly intellectual bent. "S. S. Van Dine" was the pen name of Willard Huntington Wright, a prominent art critic who initially sought to conceal his authorship of the novels. Van Dine was also a fictional character in the books, a sort of Dr. Watson figure who accompanied Vance and chronicled his exploits. Character In the early novels, Van Dine claimed that "Philo Vance" was an alias, and that details of the sleuth's adventures had been altered to protect his true identity, even if "he has now gone to Italy to live". This claim was conveniently forgotten as the series progressed. (A few years later, the same process occurred with another fictional detective, Ellery Queen, whose authors ackno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
José Ferrer
José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic American actors—or, indeed, actors of any ethnicity—during his lifetime and after, with a career spanning nearly 60 years between 1935 and 1992. He achieved prominence for his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac in the Cyrano de Bergerac (play), play of the same name, which earned him the inaugural Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1947. He reprised the role in a Cyrano de Bergerac (1950 film), 1950 film version and won an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him both the first Hispanic and the first Puerto Rican–born actor to win an Academy Award. His other notable film roles include Charles VII of France, Charles VII in ''Joan of Arc (1948 film), Joan of Arc'' (1948), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge (1952 film), ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Kennel Murder Case
''The Kennel Murder Case'' is a 1933 murder mystery novel written by S. S. Van Dine with fictional detective Philo Vance investigating a complex locked-room mystery. Plot summary One of the Coe brothers is found dead in his bedroom, locked from the inside, and the other brother is found dead the next morning in the downstairs closet. There is also the clue of a wounded Scottish Terrier, a shy Doberman Pinscher, a mysteriously broken piece of priceless Chinese porcelain, and a cast of suspicious family members, servants and associates. Philo Vance solves the case based on his knowledge of dog breeding, Chinese porcelain and the annals of remarkable antique crimes. Film adaptations :''See The Kennel Murder Case (film)'' A Warner Bros. film version of ''The Kennel Murder Case'' appeared in 1933. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz and starred William Powell as Philo Vance, reprising the role after appearing as Vance in three earlier films for Paramount, and Mary Astor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giorgio Albertazzi
Giorgio Albertazzi (20 August 1923 – 28 May 2016) was an Italian actor and film director. Born in San Martino a Mensola, Tuscany, Albertazzi joined the Italian Social Republic and reached the rank of lieutenant. After their defeat, he spent two years in prison for collaborating. Following the amnesty by Palmiro Togliatti he changed from studying architecture to acting. In the theater Albertazzi debuted in Shakespeare's ''Troilus and Cressida'', and over the following decades starred in a number of classics, many of them for television. From the early 1950s he was also seen on the big screen and appeared in more than 50 films. From 1969, he directed several television films, including the miniseries ''George Sand'' in 1981. From 2003, he was the director of the Teatro di Roma. He had a close friendship with actress Anna Proclemer who appeared with him for many years. In 2007, Albertazzi married his long-standing partner, Pia de Tolomei. In 1988 he wrote his memoirs. He d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Scarab Murder Case
''The Scarab Murder Case'' (1930) is a classic whodunit written by S. S. Van Dine. In this book, detective Philo Vance's murder investigation takes place in a private home that doubles as a museum of Egyptology, and the solution depends in part on Vance's extensive knowledge of Egyptian history and customs, which enable him to sort through suggestions of godly vengeance and reveal the misdirections perpetrated by the real murderer. Literary significance and criticism Some reviewers "were disgusted by the author's bland insults to the reader's intelligence -- e.g., the heavy Egyptian statue in the gallery, upended on a piece of a pencil and conveniently toppling onto the intended victim. By that time, they were fed up with the whole bag of tricks, which successive settings did not rejuvenate."Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. ''A Catalogue of Crime''. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. Film adaptation '' The Scarab Murder Case'' (1936 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bishop Murder Case
''The Bishop Murder Case'' (1929) is the fourth in a series of mystery novels by S. S. Van Dine about fictional detective Philo Vance. The detective solves a mystery built around a nursery rhyme. ''The Bishop Murder Case'' is believed to be the first nursery-rhyme mystery book. Plot summary The story involves a series of murders taking place in a wealthy neighborhood of New York City. The first murder, of a Mr. Joseph Cochrane Robin, who is found pierced by an arrow, is accompanied by a note signed "The Bishop", with an extract from the nursery rhyme, "Who Killed Cock Robin". This crime takes place at the home of an elderly physicist with a beautiful young ward and a private archery range. District Attorney Markham finds the circumstances so unusual that he asks his friend Philo Vance to advise upon the psychological aspects of the crime. Further murders connected with the physicist's family and neighbours are accompanied with similar extracts from Mother Goose, such as the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Garden Murder Case
''The Garden Murder Case'' (first published in 1935) is the ninth in a series of mystery novels by S. S. Van Dine about fictional detective Philo Vance. Plot outline Floyd, the son of Professor Garden, invites his socialite friends to the rooftop garden of his father's New York penthouse to listen to the outcome of horse races. Detective Philo Vance receives an anonymous telephone message inviting him to one of Floyd's gatherings. On that particular night, Floyd's best friend has placed an enormous bet on a horse named Equanimity. Once it is announced that Equanimity has lost the race, a gunshot is heard and Floyd's friend is found dead of a gunshot wound. Though initially thought to be a suicide, Detective Vance deems the death a murder. The night proves to be even more eventful, due to the attempted poisoning of Floyd's mother's nurse and the subsequent murder of his mother. Ultimately, Detective Vance is able to solve the murders. He lures the murderer into revealing himself ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golf Handicap
A golf handicap is a numerical measure of a golfer's ability, or potential ability, that is used to enable players of different abilities to compete against one another. Better players are those with the lowest handicaps. Historically, rules relating to handicaps have varied from country to country with many different systems in force around the world. Because of incompatibilities and difficulties in translating between systems, the sport's governing bodies, the USGA and The R&A, working with the various existing handicapping authorities, devised a new World Handicap System (WHS) which began to be introduced globally in 2020. History The earliest record of golf handicapping is thought to be from the late 17th century, in a diary kept by Thomas Kincaid, who was a student in Edinburgh, Scotland, although the word ''handicap'' would not come into use in golf until the late 19th century. The number of strokes to be given and the holes on which they would be in effect was negotiate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Canary Murder Case
''The "Canary" Murder Case'' (1927) is a murder mystery novel which deals with the murders of an attractive nightclub singer known as "the Canary," and, eventually, her boyfriend, solved by Philo Vance. S. S. Van Dine's classic whodunnit, second in the Philo Vance series, is said by Howard Haycraft to have broken "all modern publishing records for detective fiction." The earliest editions give the title with quotation marks around the word "Canary", but most subsequent editions omit them. Plot summary The beautiful Margaret Odell, famous Broadway beauty and ex-Follies girl known as "The Canary", is found murdered in her apartment. She has a number of men in her life, ranging from high society to gangsters, and more than one man visited her apartment on the night she dies. It is Philo Vance's characteristic erudition that leads him to a key clue that allows him to penetrate a very clever alibi and reveal the killer. "The strangeness, the daring, the seeming impenetrability ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murder cases. From 1929 to 1971, Dannay and Lee wrote around forty novels and short story collections in which Ellery Queen appears as a character. Under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, they also edited more than thirty anthologies of crime fiction and true crime. Dannay founded, and for many years edited, the crime fiction magazine ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', which has been published continuously from 1941 to the present. From 1961 onwards, Dannay and Lee commissioned other authors to write Thriller (genre), thrillers using the pseudonym Ellery Queen, but not featuring Ellery Queen as a character; some such novels were Young adult fiction, juvenile and were credited to Ellery Que ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Watson (Sherlock Holmes)
Dr. John H. Watson is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1887). " The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" (1927) is the last work of Doyle featuring Watson and Holmes, although their last appearance in the canonical timeline is in " His Last Bow" (1917). As Holmes's friend and confidant, Watson has appeared in various films, television series, video games, comics and radio programmes. Character creation In Doyle's early rough plot outlines, Holmes's associate was named "Ormond Sacker" before Doyle finally settled on "John Watson". He was probably inspired by one of Doyle's colleagues, Dr James Watson. Watson shares some similarities with the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe's stories about fictional detective C. Auguste Dupin, created in 1841, but unlike Watson, Poe's narrator remains unnamed. Fictional character biography Watson's first na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pen Name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise the author's gender, to distance the author from their other works, to protect the author from retribution for their writings, to merge multiple persons into a single identifiable author, or for any of several reasons related to the marketing or aesthetic presentation of the work. The author's real identity may be known only to the publisher or may become common knowledge. In some cases, such as those of Elena Ferrante and Torsten Krol, a pen name may preserve an author's long-term anonymity. Etymology ''Pen name'' is formed by joining pen with name. Its earliest use in English is in the 1860s, in the writings of Bayard Taylor. The French-language phrase is used as a synonym for "pen name" ( means 'pen') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance and personal grooming, refined language and leisurely hobbies. A dandy could be a self-made man both in person and ''persona'', who emulated the aristocratic style of life regardless of his middle-class origin, birth, and background, especially during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Britain.''dandy'': "One who studies ostentatiously to dress fashionably and elegantly; a fop, an exquisite." (''OED''). Early manifestations of dandyism were ''Le petit-maître'' (the Little Master) and the musk-wearing Muscadin ruffians of the middle-class Thermidorean reaction (1794–1795). Modern dandyism, however, emerged in stratified societies of Europe during the 1790s revolution periods, especially in London and Paris. Within social settings, the dandy cultivated a persona characterized by extreme posed cynicism, or "intellectual dandyism" as defined by Victorian novelist George Meredith; whereas Thom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
