The Greene Murder Case was the second film in which novelist S. S. Van Dine's popular detective "Philo Vance" appeared, but it was the third Vance novel, following Van Dyne's first mystery, The Benson Murder Case, in 1926. William Powell debuted the role of Vance earlier in the year in The Canary Murder Case (see entry) and would later star in two additional films, The Benson Murder Case (1930, see entry) and The Kennel Murder Case (1933, see entry), the latter directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Warner Bros. Throughout the 1930s, several studios, including M-G-M and Paramount, released Philo Vance pictures with Basil Rathbone, Warren William, Paul Lucas, Edmund Lowe, and Grant Richards variously portraying the detective.
       Even before the release of The Canary Murder Case, Paramount announced that its "scenarists on the West Coast" were adapting The Green Murder Case into an "all-talking" sequel, the 16 February 1929 Motion Picture News noted. Former newspaperman Bartlett Cormack, known for Paramount's hard-as-nails The Racket (1928, see entry), was preparing the dialogue.
       Filming took place at the Paramount Studios at 5451 Marathon Street in Hollywood, CA. According to a studio production chart in the 27 April 1929 Exhibitors Herald-World, shooting began on 13 April 1929. Two weeks earlier, the 29 March 1929 Film Daily had reported that Paramount was "working night and day installing apparatus in the four new sound stages" at its studio. "The new stages, which are housed under one roof, are scheduled to be ready for operation in the next few weeks, at which time 'sets' will be moved in and actual filming of talking pictures will commence." An item announcing the preparation of The Greene Murder Case in the 9 March 1929 Motion Picture News mentioned that Ruth Chatterton, Mary Brian, and Paul Lukas all had roles in the production, but none of them appeared in the final credits.
       The 20 July 1929 Exhibitors Herald-World, in an item datelined four days earlier, mentioned that director Frank Tuttle had finished The Greene Murder Case.
       A full-page color advertisement in the 15 June 1929 Motion Picture News announced that Philo Vance was returning in the "All Talking" The Greene Murder Case, along with many of the same actors/characters from The Canary Murder Case, "one of the best money pictures of the 1928-9 season." The novel, The Greene Murder Case, had already sold "half a million copies," and now the picture would be "completed soon."
       According to the September 1929 Photoplay, "This second of the fascinating Van Dine murder mysteries to reach the sound screen is a vast improvement over its predecessor, The Canary Murder Case. Better story, better acting, better direction, better synchronization....E. H. Calvert and Eugene Palette are again excellent as the district attorney and homicide sergeant." Screenland added, "It is better than the book. In fact, so much better than when author S. S. Van Dine saw the picture he must have felt pretty silly to be confronted with a better climax than he offered in the book."
       The above-mentioned Photoplay also ran a photograph of the "death mansion" that Paramount built for The Greene Murder Case, using Van Dine's own design.
       The April 1929 Photoplay featured an interview with Van Dine called "The Philosophy of Crime."
       In 1937, Paramount produced Night of Mystery (see entry), which also was based on the same novel, The Greene Murder Case, as this film. It was directed by E. A. Dupont and starred Grant Richards as Phill Vance. For information on other films featuring Van Dine's popular sleuth, see the entry for the 1933 Warner Bros. film The Kennel Murder Case, directed by Michael Curtiz and also starring William Powell.