User Reviews

The Canary Murder Case" was not William Powell's first talking film. That was "Interference", also by Paramount. 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. This pretty much finished her in film in the U.S., although she went to Germany and did some of her finest work. Unfortunately, that fact was not discovered in this country for another thirty years. Instead of starting over with another actress, it was decided to have someone dub Louise' voice, and as a result her lip movement is noticeably out of synchronization with her "voice". 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. You see him moving toward the characterization of the dapper P.I. that he played through the Thin Man series of films beginning in 1934. 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.

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. This girl is a much cruder version of Lorelei Lee who is determined to marry wealthy and insure a steady income for her pleasures. 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. She's pretty wasted as a typical good girl part. One player who will be a revelation is Ned Sparks as Brooks's ex-husband who claims he's not an ex. He's not the lovable sourpuss we later saw in many films, but a rather vicious animal. 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.

First Philo Vance film starring William Powell in the lead and a dubbed Louise Brooks in a small role. It's an early talkie so from a technical standpoint it creaks and groans as you might expect. But it's still an enjoyable picture with a good turn from Powell. Watch other movies from this year and you'll be doubly impressed by Powell's acting. His style is years ahead of most of his contemporaries who tended to overact. This series would get much better and Powell would certainly go on to do more memorable work, but this isn't a bad start at all. It's not a terribly exciting watch but it never bored me. If you like classic detective stories from this period it's worth a look.

A famous "transition" film. One shot as a silent and partly re-shot for talkies. William Powell stars as Philo Vance. Jean Arthur plays a show girl. 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. The studio then released news her voice would not record well. 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. Brooks disappears after about 15 minutes; Arthur has no real part. That leaves us with James Hall as the dupe, Eugene Palette the dumb sergeant, Charles Lane the father, Oscar Smith the desk attendant, etc. Lots of talk.

Brooks is gorgeous and in the credits you note she gets downplayed from 2nd to 4th billing. Another Paramount jab. Brooks indeed had a fine voice even though I've only seen a couple of lousy westerns she made. She was a beauty and had a good voice. But she sure was difficult. And her "Lulu in Hollywood" memoir doesn't change my mind about her. By the way: I loved her in Beggars of Life as well as Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl.

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... Others who, followed him were: Paul Lukas, Edmund Lowe, Warren Williams, Grant Richards, James Stephenson and Alan Curtis

"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. This happened quite a lot in the late 1920s. 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). Well, their gamble worked and the movie was a big success. When seen today, however, it's obvious that the film has issues! 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). She uses her sexual wiles to blackmail men..LOTS of men. 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. Films from 1929 simply aren't as polished as films made just a year or two later. The incidental music we take for granted is missing--which is normal for 1929 but not 1931 or later. It makes for a strangely quiet film. Also, unlike the bazillions of detective films of the 1930s and 40s, this one is remarkably talky and relies a lot on the detective's intuition instead of concrete facts. 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!!! It wasn't--I checked.

I have been a fan of S.S. Van Dine's "Philo Vance" novels since I was a kid. I have recently purchased the first editions of most of his catalogue. 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. It is slow beyond belief. It is more than obvious that Louise's speaking parts are dubbed. The editors chose long shots so it wasn't as noticeable----it didn't work! 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.

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. The second was that director Mal St Clair had no knowledge of sound technique. And perhaps it's true too that he supported Miss Brooks' stand. She and Paramount had parted on bad terms because the studio refused to honor her contract. In any event, Frank Tuttle was engaged to direct the talkie.

In order to get around the Brooks problem, the studio wheeled in a double, Margaret Livingston. 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. A major headache for the editor indeed, and he is to be commended for a sterling job of work under extremely difficult circumstances. The pace is odd, the cutting unrhythmical and even jarringly abrupt at times, but at least the narrative still makes sense.

Aside from Miss Livingston, the players do wonders with the not very convincing dialogue supplied by novelist S.S. Van Dine himself. Oddly, Eugene Palette copes best, giving a typically hearty impersonation of Sergeant Heath. On the other hand, Powell seems a little unsure of his character at this stage and is often content merely to rattle off his lines. 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.

"Margaret O'Dell" (Louis Brooks) is not a nice person. However, because of her beauty, she has managed to snare a number of men who come to see her perform in theaters under the name "the Canary." To that extent, having compromised several of these men, she has now turned to blackmail in order to satisfy her ambitions. So, when her body is discovered in her hotel room the detective in charge of the case, "Philo Vance" (William Powell) already has a list of suspects to be interrogated. But first he has to sift through the stories that each of these men have concocted in order to hide any motive they may have to keep "the Canary" from singing her song to the wrong person. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a pretty good mystery in spite of the fact that it is 93 years old at the time of this writing. That said, viewers will probably have to make allowances for the film quality. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this film in spite of its dated nature and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

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. H. Calvert) and Police Sergeant Ernest Heath (Eugene Palette). 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. Technically, silents were at their peak of efficiency when talkies arrived, only for Hollywood to stumble along in primitive fashion for at least two years beyond. This Feb 1929 release has the characters speak slowly, pausing in between lines, an unnatural style of acting that stretches the running time beyond endurance. Even Powell can't escape the trap, especially since the role of Vance hardly taxes him here. 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"). E. H. Calvert and Eugene Palette would be retained in all three Paramount Vances, the last being "The Benson Murder Case." Powell would leave Paramount for Warners by the time of his fourth and final entry as Vance, 1933's "The Kennel Murder Case," easily the best of them all (Warren William replaced Powell in the fifth, "The Dragon Murder Case").

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. She had just completed the silent version of this film when her Paramount contract came up for renewal. She was owned a $250 bump in salary, which would have boosted her all the way to $1,000 a week. But B.P. Schulberg refused to honor the deal, saying he didn't know how she would record. Of course, Brooks walked out on the film, went to Europe and made film history, although it would be 30 years before anyone realized it. But eventually, the restored version of "Pandora's Box" would turn her into a screen legend and perhaps, the greatest femme fatale in movie history. 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. (For a real example of her voice, check out "Windy Riley Goes Hollywood," a terrible 1929 short that was actually directed by Fatty Arbuckle under an assumed name. 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. But the first part is fascinating, if only because Brooks is so damned beautiful that she takes your breath away.

The interlude between silent movies and talkies was an interesting one. Paramount Pictures had vowed in October 1928 not to release any movies that weren't all-talkies--with the exception to those theaters not wired for sound yet. It had a number of silents in the middle of production that needed to have talking segments added to satisfy the thirst of a public loving what it had seen so far in the early talkies. Silent versions of these dialogue-filled pictures were still going to be made for more rural areas, but the talkie revolution was happening at a quickened pace in the larger cities. One of the first silents to be converted to a talkie was February 1929's "The Canary Murder Case." Production had wrapped up by October 12, 1928. Paramount called back all the actors and actresses who appeared in the film to reshoot the scenes involving dialogue. Everyone came back, with the exception of one.

Louise Brooks had demanded a hefty bonus to reshoot her portion of "The Canary Murder Case." Her character was killed 15 minutes into the movie, so there wasn't that much dialogue to film. Paramount refused to meet her demands. Her contract expired after the "Canary" filming ended before she traveled to Germany to accept German director G. W. Pabst's offer to act as the lead in "Pandora's Box." Brooks refused to return when the studio didn't budge on her bonus request. According to some, that refusal limited her movie opportunities in Hollywood when she returned two years later from Europe.

Paramount knew "The Canary Murder Case" was going to be a complete bomb unless it released a talkie version. In lieu of Brooks' abscence, the producers hired actress Margaret Livingston, the temptress in 1927 F. W. Murnau's "Sunrise," to be Brooks' body double in the wide shots where she was made up to look like her from behind while she was talking. They used other tricks, such as hiding Livingston behind a cabinet to appear as if Louise were conversing with a potential killer. But all that dubbing didn't fool viewers. Critic Louella Parsons, the Los Angeles Examiner critic, noticed. "You are conscious that the words spoken do not actually emanate from the mouth of Miss Brooks and you feel that as much of her part as possible has been cut. She is unbelievably bad in a role that should have been well suited to her. Only long shots are permitted of her and even these are far from convincing when she speaks." The angry executives at Paramount began to smear Brooks, falsely claiming the studio was forced to do the dub job because Brooks' voice was so bad, which wasn't the case.

"The Canary Murder Case" was based on a series of popular crime mystery novels by the pseudonym writer S. S. Van Dine (real author: Willard Huntington Wright). The 1929 film kicked off a string of 16 movies over 20 years, with Detective Philo Vance solving every case. Actor William Powell appeared as the detective in four of the first five movies. In "Canary," Brooks plays a stage girl, Margaret O'Dell, who loves married men. She claims her ex-boyfriend, Jimmy Spotswoode (James Hall), has embezzled money from his dad's bank. Jimmy denies such a charge. His father visits her apartment to try to bribe Margaret to keep her quiet. Jimmy is about to marry Alice La Fosse (Jean Arthur) and doesn't need any headaches from 'The Canary" Margaret squawking. The next morning she's found dead.

"The Canary Murder Case" was the first speaking role for Jean Arthur. She was extremely hesitant to transfer over from silent to sound movies. But when the actress realized talkies weren't just a fad, she knew she had to accept speaking parts. Her few speaking lines in "Canary" didn't impress critics. She looked back at her talking debut and said she was a "very poor actress. I was awfully anxious to improve, but was inexperienced so far as genuine training was concerned." At the time, Paramount was scouting Broadway actors with great voice articulation and live stage experience. Arthur decided to take some time off to act in a few New York CIty plays to become comfortable speaking in front of a live audience. At the same time she received expert vocal lessons from coaches who knew more about voice projection than miming physical movements on the screen.

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. It is a pity that they didn't follow the book more closely, and especially the character of Vance more closely. 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. He has often been called, "the finest American detective in the English tradition". A little ironic, since what is often called the "English tradition" was started by Edgar Allen Poe in his C. Auguste Dupin stories). Actually the person who came closest to the true Vance was Warren William, but the character was never really developed as opposed to the character of Sherlock Holmes. Which is probably why Vance never really took off as a movie character.

One manipulative songbird, many possible suspects: 'The canary murder case' is the cinematic representation of a classic murder mystery. We get just enough exposition to establish some chief characters, suspects, and motives, and the story otherwise bears almost no substance that isn't directly tied to the case at hand. While we watch the investigation and secrets to unfold, the narrative is broadly very straightforward, with no especial twists or turns in the active plot - unless one counts inordinate sophistication to the murderer's scheme that I think similarly reflects genre convention. That directness is perhaps a little off-putting, as it strictly defines and therefore somewhat limits our engagement. Still, this is reasonably entertaining despite its difficulties.

As any reading of the production history shows, those difficulties include in no small part the effort to dub dialogue over finished silent footage. The producers did the best they could, sure, but the disparity is notable all the same - and most glaring when it comes to unmistakable Louise Brooks, here accordingly dubbed over by Margaret Livingston. On a like note, it's unfortunate that the two black actors to appear in the feature are relegated to roles with mannerisms that feel a bit too stereotypical to feed into our entertainment. Oh well.

Despite indelicacies in inserting audio over the picture, the cast are quite solid, both in their visual representation and even in the voiceovers they recorded in post. While the plainness of the story is perhaps unfortunate, by way of being a little bland, the narrative is complete and cohesive. There's even a measure of cleverness in the picture in Vance's effort to discern the psychology of the suspects, and his analysis of the case beyond the superficial presentation of apparent facts.

If I seem noncommittal in my words, consider it an extension of my feelings about the feature: 'The canary murder case' is enjoyable, but it's not wholly captivating, and doesn't specifically spark the imagination in the way one would like from a movie. Though you don't really need to go out of your way, it's an adequately satisfying diversion if you come across it.

Unfortunately, I had to make do with a rather poor copy of THE CANARY MURDER CASE, full of scratches and tiny breaks - not to mention the crackling recording, which I had to take as sportingly as I could, knowing that by 1929 the movie industry was only in its earliest forays into sound.

Those drawbacks aside, I found the joint direction by Tuttle and St Clair very competent and even imaginative, with most of the shooting done in dark interiors. Of course, to achieve that quality level the directors had to rely on a strong script - and that they had, courtesy of SS Van Dine and adaptation by the suggestively named Albert Le Vino (thankfully, there is far less drinking here than poor William Powell would have to endure as Detective Nick Charles 5 years later).

Ultimately, though, what I take away from this picture are the following pluses: Louise Brooks' incredibly timeless beauty (I have been in love with her since watching the silent PANDORA'S BOX); William Powell's nonchalant but classy Philo Vance, helped by peerless diction that must have been the envy of just about all actors in Hollywood in 1929; the clever dialogue that draws into a whodunnit that rates far more complex than I expected from a 1929 vehicle.

Definitely a must for fans of Powell, Brooks, Arthur, and whodunnit. 8/10.

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.

This film typifies the problems the studios were having adapting to sound in 1929. The characters talk and talk and talk and nothing much happens. 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. William Powell, just beginning to develop his persona as a sophisticate, really doesn't stand much of a chance here. However, for historical value, it is worth a try. 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.