The Canary Murder Case *** (1929, William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Hall, Louise Brooks) – Classic Movie Review 11,310

‘The sinister threat of a jealousy maddened lover – a whispered warning – a scream! And next morning the world asks – WHO KILLED THE CANARY!!!’

Director Malcolm St Clair’s 1929 Paramount Pictures black and white mystery crime thriller The Canary Murder Case stars William Powell, who plays S S Van Dine’s silky sleuth Philo Vance for the first time in this creaky, but still very watchable mystery struggling against primitive sound techniques.

His case sends him on the trail of the strangling of scheming, blackmailing New York night-club chanteuse ‘The Canary’ Margaret O’Dell (Louise Brooks), and naturally more murders take place before he finds the killer, one of half a dozen or so suspects who had been her victims.

Powell’s enduring performance, alluring and charming, the Louise Brooks appearance, the good cast of players, the ingenious mystery and the spruce production are the main assets.

The good players most notably also include Eugene Pallette in his recurring role as the troublesome cop Sgt Ernest Heath, James Hall as victimised Jimmy Spottswoode, Jean Arthur as show girl Alice LaFosse, the girlfriend of one of the suspects, Charles Lane as the father Charles Spottswoode, Oscar Smith the desk attendant, and Ned Sparks as Tony Skeel.

It was shot as a silent picture from 11 September 11 to 12 October 1928 but Paramount bosses were looking to convert all their silent films in the can into talkies and decided that releasing it as a silent would be a financial failure, so they called in Frank Tuttle to rework it (uncredited) as an all-talkie. That required considerable re-filming, in which an un-cooperative Brooks, who was then working in Germany and refusing to return from Europe to re-shoot her scenes as a talkie, was impersonated by Margaret Livingston, who supplied her voice and stood in for her in some of the retakes with her short, bobbed hair but is seen only in profile or from behind.

Louise Brooks in The Canary Murder Case.

Brooks had completed her Paramount contract with the film and declined to renew it after the studio refused her a raise. She left to make two films for director G W Pabst in Berlin. Paramount cabled her, demanding she return to record her lines but Brooks refused, feeling she had no obligation to the studio. Brooks’s refusal to dub the movie angered Paramount so much that they effectively sabotaged her acting career, spreading the word that her voice was not suitable for sound film, although her later sound films showed this was not true.

Also in the cast are Gustav von Seyffertitz, Lawrence Grant, E H Calvert, Louis John Bartels, Tim Adair, and Oscar Smith.

The Canary Murder Case was released by Paramount Pictures on February 16, 1929. Despite the high cost and the controversial dubbing of Brooks, the film was a hit. Brooks’s career never recovered but Powell’s prospered. Powell filmed two sequels at Paramount, The Greene Murder Case (1929) and The Benson Murder Case (1930), as well as The Kennel Murder Case (1933) at rival studio Warner Bros.

It is written by Albert Shelby Le Vino (adaptation), Herman J Mankiewicz (titles, silent version), Florence Ryerson (screenplay) and S S Van Dine (story and dialogue).

Van Dine’s story is based on the unsolved real-life murder of showgirl Dot King. The film changes many elements of the book, though its keeps its essential plotting. Powell changes Vance from the book’s pompous dilettante into an urbane sleuth and later reused the persona as Nick Charles in The Thin Man films.

There is no sign of Vance’s crony Van Dine, who narrates the book. S S Van Dine is the pseudonym for Willard Huntington Wright.

Paramount Pictures bought the rights to the first three S S Van Dine mysteries in 1928, filming the second book The Canary Murder Case first. MGM outbid Paramount for the fourth Philo Vance novel, and filmed it as The Bishop Murder Case (1929) with Basil Rathbone.

It is followed by The Greene Murder Case (1929).

The Canary Murder Case is directed by Malcolm St Clair, runs 82 minutes, is made by Paramount Pictures, is written by Albert Shelby Le Vino (adaptation), Herman J Mankiewicz (titles, silent version), Florence Ryerson (screenplay) and S S Van Dine (story and dialogue), is shot in black and white by Harry Fischbeck, is produced by Louis D Lighton, and is scored by Karl Hajos.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,310

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