William Powell stars as S. S. Van Dine's amateur sleuth Philo Vance in this, the first of the detective's screen appearances, and he looks a little forlorn without a female companion to keep him on his toes. The Canary is Louise Brooks, who appears all too briefly as a blackmailing femme fatale who is knocked off by any one of half a dozen men (she is dubbed by Margaret Livingston, and Paramount couldn't have picked a worse match if they tried). Other notables in the cast includes a very young Jean Arthur as the girlfriend of one of the suspects, and Eugene Pallette as the obligatory dumb cop. It's light on action, but The Canary Murder Case is an entertaining watch - although the method of murder is simply too fantastic for words.
Review of The Canary Murder Case
