The Canary Murder Case

Plot synopsis:
Charles Spotswoode's son Jimmy became involved with "the Canary", a conniving star showgirl. Fortunately, Jimmy has regained his senses and reconciled with Alyce LaFosse. However, the Canary is determined to force Jimmy to marry her so she can join the social elite, threatening to reveal that Jimmy was embezzling from his father. She turns down the elder Spotswoode's offer of money to leave Jimmy alone. She also telephones two men she has been blackmailing, Cleaver and Mannix, and demands one final generous gift from each of them by the next day. She also informs "creepy" admirer Dr. Lindquist. Her ex-husband Tony Sheel eavesdrops and wants half, but she refuses to give him anything, even after he hits her. Cleaver, Mannix and Lindquist are all shown lurking about her apartment building late that night.
Spotswoode visits her at her apartment around midnight, but cannot get her to change her mind. After he reaches the lobby of her building, he and another person hear screams from her place. They knock on the door, but she assures them that she is fine.
The next day, she is found strangled to death. The coroner places the time of death around midnight. District Attorney Markham investigates, aided by Philo Vance (a close friend of Charles Spotswoode) and Police Sergeant Heath. After all the prime suspects are questioned, Vance asks Markham to keep them waiting for a few hours. Markham agrees, as Vance has helped solve another case. Vance subtly maneuvers Cleaver, Mannix, Lindquist and the two Spotswoodes into playing poker to pass the time so he can observe their personality traits. Only one shows the daring, imagination and discipline required for the crime; that man bluffs Vance, betting everything with just a pair of deuces. The suspects are then released.
Sheel, who was hiding the closet and witnessed the murder, sends the killer several blackmail letters. For his trouble, he too is strangled. A pen found at the scene has Jimmy's name on it, so Heath arrests him for the murder. Jimmy then confesses to both murders, but Vance knows better.
He telephones Charles Spotswoode with the news and suggests they meet in an hour. Spotswoode speeds to the city from his country estate to confess, but his chauffeur makes a fatal mistake by trying to beat a train to a crossing, and Spotswoode is killed. Now Vance has to show how he murdered the Canary in order to free Jimmy. Fortunately, he is able to figure out that the Canary was dead before Spotswoode left her apartment that night. Spotswoode had made a recording (Vance speculates it was Spotswoode himself pretending to be the woman) to fool a stuttering witness into believing she was alive and well. The record is still in the apartment, so Jimmy is released.

Tags: murder

Review:
This film is today memorable only for those interested in the struggles the studios went through during the conversion to sound, and those interested in the fortunes of two of Hollywood's most fascinating characters, William Powell, and Louise Brooks.Powell is cast as Philo Vance and plays him in a straight, deadpan manner.
It's interesting because he has almost none of the charm and sophistication that he would bring just a few years later to the Nick Charles character that would become such a major hit.On the other hand, this is the film that sunk the Hollywood career of Louise Brooks.
But the film pretty much flopped at the time, mostly because it was carved up by the censors.Meanwhile, Paramount decided to do some reshoots to get some sound into "Canary", but could not lure Brooks back to Hollywood for love or money.
So Margaret Livingston was brought in and dubbed Brooks' voice, unfortunately using a Brooklyn accent that sounded nothing at all like Brooks.
She has a low, sexy voice, despite Paramount's contention that she "didn't record." It's now available on DVD as added material for Brooks' other German triumph, "Diary of a Lost Girl," directed by G.W.Pabst.)At any rate, Canary is slow moving and dull to the extreme.
After Brooks' character is knocked off, the film goes straight downhill and is almost impossible to watch.
William Powell stars as Philo Vance.
Louise Brooks is the "Canary." Of course this film is famous because Brooks refused to return from Europe to re-shoot scenes as a talkie.
To get even more even they hired Margaret Livingston to dub Brooks' voice in a high nasal New York accent.
Livingston also appears in a few long shots in a Louise Brooks hair cut.Slow but OK murder mystery.
The Canary Murder Case" was not William Powell's first talking film.
Also, even though Louise Brooks was prominently advertised as "The Canary", a showgirl determined to marry a rich young man just for the fun of ruining him, she doesn't get much screen time.
That is because The Canary Murder Case was originally shot as a silent film, but then it was decided to make it into a talking picture.
Louise Brooks detested talking pictures and refused to stay and reshoot her part.
Much of The Canary's speaking is done with her back to the camera, minimizing the problem.William Powell, who was quite wooden in his first talking performance in "Interference", does much better here.
Powell had a pretty good silent career after a long period of poverty doing stage work prior to 1920, and he was one of the few silent stars to successfully make the transition to talking films..
When Paramount decided to re-make their unreleased silent, "The Canary Murder Case" as a talkie, they faced two problems.
The first was that the title star, Louise Brooks, had accepted an offer to work in Germany and refused to return.
Not only did Miss Livingston dub the Canary's voice (in an atrocious Brooklyn accent yet!) but also substituted visually in back-to-the-camera long shots.So what we have is a movie in which all the Brooks close-ups (in fact all the shots which show her face), plus at least one short clip in a hotel corridor and maybe the long shot of the dancing chorus in the theater (and perhaps the location snip of the speeding car), were directed by Mal St Clair, whereas the rest of the action was directed by Frank Tuttle.
The rest of the players are competent enough, if a little too theatrical at times, though comedian Ned Sparks seems miscast as a ruthless thug and Jean Arthur's fans are in for a considerable shock not only by the paucity of her part but by the most unattractive way she is presented and photographed.All the same, the film comes across as more than a mere curiosity.
It not only bolsters the Brooks legend, but, if nothing else, it also presents a murder mystery that is not only reasonably intriguing but ingeniously solved.P.S. The actor who plays Sergeant Heath spells his name "Pallette", but IMDb's automatic spelling correcter refuses to acknowledge this..
In what turns out to be his second talking picture William Powell introduces to the screen the character of debonair detective Philo Vance.
Like his later Nick Charles, Powell as Vance likes to live the high life though he's not as big a drinker.
He gets called in by an old friend Charles Lane (not the acerbic character actor we all know from TV and films) but an older gentlemen who is concerned about the continuing involvement of his son James Hall with nightclub singer Louise Brooks known only as The Canary.
Hall is engaged to good girl Jean Arthur, but can't keep away from Brooks.She's got a whole gang of other men on the string as well and she also has an ex-husband so when Brooks turns up dead there are no lack of suspects for Powell to work through.
The police however with dumb as a brick Eugene Palette as Sergeant Heath seem to zero in on Hall.For those who like the vivacious Jean Arthur in the classic films she was yet to do you won't find her here.
Totally a surprise.William Powell's perfect diction and stage training make The Canary Murder Case hold up well even today.
Unlike so many of his contemporaries at this time, Powell seem to know instinctively how to play for the new talking picture camera.
Sound made his career.For those who enjoy nice detective stories with a closed ring of suspects, you can't go wrong with The Canary Murder Case..
Being a great Philo Vance fan, I had to purchase this film even though it is a pretty rough transfer to tape and is very stilted in style.
The obvious post-dubbing of Louise Brooks' voice is comical since it comes out as a nasal Bronx accent.
It is the last film that Brooks made before she went to Germany and her greatest triumphs(Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl); thus the voice dubbing.
The film started out as a silent and was converted to sound....by that time she was in Germany and refused to return to dub her own voice.
If you are a Philo Vance buff and can't work your way through this film, see "The Kennel Murder Case" instead..
I have read about this movie for years, and being a HUGE admirer of Louise Brooks, I could not wait to see this film.Although I have always been fascinated by early sound films, this is one is a textbook case of the problems encountered by the studios at the time.
Powell's Philo Vance bears no resemblance to the colorful character in the novels.
I give this film a "3" rating simply for Brooks' beauty..
One of the earliest private-eye talkies was "The Canary Murder Case," featuring William Powell as an American detective called Philo Vance ...
later described by Raymond Chandler as "probably the most asinine character in detective fiction." This type of "classic" murder mystery, transposed to an American location, must have seemed a natural for early talkie producers: few sets, all interiors, a lot of talk and little of that difficult action stuff which meant the camera might have to move around Like filming a stage play, in fact.
Here was an opportunity to set up the static camera in its enclosed booth and let the actors get on with the job Most of these films turned out to be the dullest ever made It wasn't the fault of William Powell, who played Philo Vance with wit and elegance It was the fault of a basic misconception in making private-detective movies Powell played Vance four times...
"The Canary Murder Case" is a problematic film to watch.
Apparently after it was made, the studio decided to re-shoot a few scenes and dub others in order to make this silent film a talking picture.
But what made it tougher is that the temperamental Louise Brooks refused to return to re-shoot or re-dub so the studio had to make due with another lady's voice and re-shooting a few awkward scenes (such as having Ned Sparks' character talking to a screen and pretending she was behind it).
Now I am NOT saying it's a bad film but, like "Saratoga" (where the leading lady died in the middle of filming and they awkwardly had her stand-in do the missing scenes...with her back to the camera!), the ruse clearly shows.The 'Canary' in the title of this film is a nickname given to a horrible chorus girl, Margaret O'Dell (Brooks).
The first 20 minutes of the film is used to establish MANY times MANY different potential murderers and SOMEONE croaked the 'lady'...but who?!
Philo Vance (William Powell) and a dopey detective (Eugene Palette) investigate.When you watch this film, you need to cut it some slack.
Not a great mystery movie by the standards of later films but watchable nevertheless.By the way, if you DO watch this film (and it's currently posted on YouTube), look at one of the potential murderers--he looks JUST LIKE LENIN!!!
This is an interesting curiosity, as are so many films from the transition to sound.The "Canary" Murder Case was S.S.Van Dine's second in the Philo Vance series, and one of the best.
William Powell is rather nondescript as Vance, sort of like a watered down Nick Charles, without the wit and erudition that made the books so popular.(Vance is often described as "insufferable", which is puzzling when you consider that the books about him were tremendous best sellers, Apparently the American public didn't consider him insufferable.
William Powell's debut as Philo Vance.
1929's "The Canary Murder Case" was William Powell's second sound film, but his first in the role of S.
S. Van Dine's debonair detective 'Philo Vance,' who uses psychology to ferret out the culprits alongside District Attorney Markham (E.
Completed as a silent then reworked for sound, Louise Brooks still contributes the standout performance, despite never returning to dub her part, having already been spurned by Paramount's promised pay raise (their subsequent blacklist of the actress only confirmed her worst suspicions about Hollywood).
Golddigging showgirl 'The Canary' (Brooks) has her claws in several men (some of them married), but has selected wealthy young Jimmy Spottswoode (James Hall) to become her husband, despite the fact he is promised to Alice La Fosse (Jean Arthur), another showgirl.
There is no shortage of suspects after the Canary is found strangled 17 minutes in, but with another hour to go, the limitations of early talkies make it a real chore to watch.
Jean Arthur gets shortchanged as well, barely registering in what amounts to a cameo, despite billing more prominent than Brooks' (she would return for the next Philo Vance feature, "The Greene Murder Case").
William Powell's Philo Vance, is NOT the Vance I saw in "The Greene Murder Case" or "The Kennel Murder Case, which are a training ground for his Nick Charles character which we saw in "The Thin Man".
This Vance is very much like the Vance shown in "The Bishop Murder Case" with Basil Rathbone (Interesting isn't it that two of the most famous screen detectives (Powell and Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes)), got their gumshoe starts playing Vance?).
Spoilers ahead: He actually was able to deduce who was the killer of "The Canary" (Louise Brooks), by playing poker, and figuring out who had the type of personality needed to take the risk necessary to commit the murder.
My biggest problems with the film, were I knew who the killer was right from the start, and beyond Vance and the law enforcement officials, the most sympathetic characters were Alice LaFosse (Jean Arthur) the fiancé of one of the suspects Jimmy Spottswoode (James Hall), and the killer.
There is little doubt "The Canary" had it coming to her (Vance said so five minutes into the film).
The biggest asset to this film is without question Brooks (Even with only 15 minutes of screen time).
I am giving this film 7/10 stars (Mostly for Brooks)..
In "Paramount on Parade" William Powell essayed a spot on parody of Philo Vance, an intellectual man-about-town amateur detective, and when he was shot Inspector Heath (Eugene Palette) happily congratulated Fu Manchu.
S.S. Van Dine had written his first Vance book in 1926 - "The Benson Murder Case", and it was a huge success.
Philo Vance was independently wealthy and was always called into the cases by Heath when the police had given up - of course he always solved the crime!!
In 1929 Paramount acquired the film rights to the first three Van Dine books and the first to roll out was "The Canary Murder Case".
William Powell who had excelled in villainous roles was a brilliant choice for Vance.
He played up the suavity and intellectualism but eliminated the stuffiness and pretentiousness that was quickly turning a lot of readers off!!Louise Brooks in feathers was enough to make this movie memorable, even though you didn't hear her distinctive throbby voice.
She played "The Canary", a beautiful blackmailing showgirl who has set her sights on marrying into society and has her claws into Jimmy (James Hall) who in turn has patched things up with fellow show- girl Alice (for all Jean Arthur's top billing she has two small scenes).Definitely not as interesting as "The Greene Murder Case", once Brooks departed (she was the victim) after 15 minutes, there were no more ladies to brighten up proceedings.
The climax came with a poker game, staged by the insufferable Mr. Vance, in an effort to use psychology to flush out the murderer.
Until then chief suspect is young Jimmy but in a twist the murderer is killed and Philo Vance then takes centre stage to explain just how the murder had been done.
Most interesting character is good old Ned Sparks as, believe it or not, Louise's husband back from "up the river" and eager to get his hands on some of her ill gotten loot!!The film was caught in the middle of the talkie change over.
Initially filmed as a silent in 1928 it was extensively re-shot to make it a 1929 all talkie, which explains Louise Brook's reluctance to return for dialogue dubbing.
Philo Vance (William Powell) aids the police in running down the killer of the Canary (Louise Brooks, looking good but obviously dubbed) a show girl who was planning on blackmailing the son of a rich banker into marrying her.
This was always held out by people I've known to be the best of the Philo Vances, edging out the Kennel Murder Case.
I don't think anyone who's said that had seen the film in years because I don't know when the last time this was run on TV.
Actually its a slow (you could trim about 15 minutes out of this), dated (there is no music and many scenes were shot silent and sound added later) but still enjoyable little thriller.
Watching "The Canary Murder Case" is like watching (film) history being written: this is probably the first traditional talkie whodunit to appear on the screen.
I don't mind the thoroughly unrestored print, or the fact that some actors (thankfully, not William Powell as Philo Vance) take an eternity to finish their sentences; these things give the movie a certain vintage charm.
Jean Arthur, who is second-billed, has a very small role (she speaks with a cute Minnie Mouse-like voice).
Philo Vance (William Powell) is on the case of a showgirl named "The Canary" who was murdered in her locked apartment.
The suspect list includes a number of men The Canary was blackmailing and all were in the vicinity of her apartment the night she died.Unfortunately, the backstory behind the making of The Canary Murder Case is much more interesting than the movie.
Originally, The Canary Murder Case was to be a silent picture.
But at the last minute, the studio decided to turn it into a talkie.
But one of the film's stars, Louise Brooks, refused to participate.
The studio hired another woman who resembled Brooks, shot her from the back, and used her voice for some of the worst dubbing I've ever heard.
The result of all this effort, however, is a very uneven film that often feels cobbled together.Getting past the backstory, The Canary Murder Case is dull.
Watching William Powell in this early Philo Vance effort, it's hard to believe this is the same man who would go on to play the absurdly (and I mean that in a good way) animated Nick Charles.
One of the best lines in the movie: Louise Brooks, with her signature do and a voice that sounds like a yelping Chihuahua, calls up a newspaper editor and announces that she's going to marry the scion of a prominent family.
It's at this point, twenty minutes into the movie, that we discover that William Powell is Philo Vance, detective.
He and the police work together to solve the canary's murder.The police act as if mentally hobbled.
It's odd because the two of them have been together before and after the canary's murder.
Jean Arthur is a brunette Alice and has the same curiously appealing nasal voice that she would have ten years later, but not yet the acting chops.
Slow early talkie murder mystery with Powell at his best.
Well, this is the first of four Philo Vance detective stories and it plays like a photographed stage play, excruciatingly slow and turgid.
One has to "know" poker to understand Philo's technique of unmasking the murderer and the lengths the true murderer goes to to commit the crime are completely implausible, and impossible to achieve as explained here.All the actors speak and move in slow motion, as was the standard in early talkies, yet Powell is assured and urbane throughout, rightfully making him the star of the film.Louise Brooks had a further peg in her coffin as a Hollywood star by refusing to re-film her scenes, once the talkie version went into production.