William Powell Paramount Publicity Photograph 1929
And A Rare Interview About Playing A Part
37-year-old William Powell looks very tan in this 1929 Paramount Pictures publicity photograph. Powell also looks like he has a case of the mumps.
Powell is best known to classic movie fans for author Dashiell Hammett’s creation; Nick Charles, a former private detective, in a series of hugely popular Thin Man films with Myrna Loy made in the nineteen thirties and forties.
But, in 1929 Powell was playing another amateur sleuth, Philo Vance. Author Willard Huntington Wright, better known as S.S. Van Dine, wrote a dozen Philo Vance mystery novels.
Powell made several films playing Vance including The Canary Murder Case (1929) The Greene Murder Case (1929) The Benson Murder Case (1930) and The Kennel Murder Case (1933).
On Acting
Powell’s approach to acting was naturalistic. In a five decade stage and film career Powell rarely granted interviews. Discussing Shadow of the Law (1930) with The Baltimore Sun, Powell gave insight into his approach to playing Jim Montgomery, a fugitive who kills a man in self-defense.
Powell explained, “The fugitive from justice is a fear hunted individual who lives in constant dread. The sound of a door opening or a mere footfall puts him on his guard. He is furtive and wary, always expecting his past to catch up with him.
It is relatively easy to simulate anger, surprise or even sudden terror. To simulate the ever-present fear of the hunted is far more difficult. to do so, one must live with the dread of the character he is playing. I had to make Montgomery’s dread of detection my own. And while I seldom carry my roles home with me, I did this one. I’ll admit I was a very nervous individual during the time certain of the sequences were being filmed. There is something terribly contagious and destructive about fear. It actually eats right into one.”
William Powell retired from show business after his 1955 role as Doc in Mister Roberts. Powell died in Palm Springs, CA on March 5, 1984 at the age of 91.
