Directed by Malcolm St. Clair, Frank Tuttle
A beautiful showgirl, name "the Canary" is a scheming nightclub singer. Blackmailing is her game and with that she ends up dead. But who killed "the Canary". All the suspects knew and were used by her and everyone had a motive to see her dead. The only witness to the crime has also been 'rubbed out'. Only one man, the keen, fascinating, debonair detective Philo Vance, would be able to figure out who is the killer.
El crimen del canario, Die Stimme aus dem Jenseits, O Drama de uma Noite, Hvem dræbte Margaret O'Dell?, ¿Quién la mató?, Salaperäinen rikos, La Canarina Assassinata, Kanariya satsujinjiken, Midnattsmysteriet, La canarina assassinata, 金丝雀谋杀案
USANR USANR USA 
" . . . you know I have a strange premonition that the Canary is headed for disaster."
Sounds like our man Philo got a glimpse of the film's poster.
Well, for a movie originally conceived and produced as a silent that features an (iconically coiffed) actress who refused to participate in reshoots (resulting in laughably awful dubbing by the Wicked City Lady) it could've been worse? Maybe? One thing's certain - by the 10-minute mark, I was deeply regretting the fact that my Blu-ray player doesn't have an option to rev up the playback speed.
An ambitious, blackmailing showgirl answering to an avian moniker (drink every time someone says "the Canary", but stick to non-potent potables; I don't want…
The cursed Philo Vance franchise continues with a frustrating film. Initially shot as a silent feature, Paramount retrofitted The Canary Murder Case as a talky before release by adding reshoots and overdubs. The results are choppy at best. Some of the sequences are gorgeous, high silent period works of art while others are static, stilted and generally inept dialogue scenes. William Powell, debuting in the Vance role, seems to handle the voice acting the best, but his co-star Louise Brooks is poorly dubbed (by Margaret Livingston), ruining her otherwise excellent performance. Young Jean Arthur is cute in it, so there is that. Some of this could have been papered over with an engaging (or even interesting) plot. Alas…
Streaming here.
“As you know, I’ve made a hobby of crime and criminals.”
The Canary Murder Case, the first Philo Vance film, is stagy and stodgily directed by Malcom St. Clair and an uncredited Frank Tuttle because it was originally shot as a silent film and then had dialogue dubbed in and new scenes shot. Because Paramount clearly didn’t know what to do with the new technology, the film is sluggishly paced, with lengthy scenes as if the source is a play, and an especially painfully long poker scene. William Powell hasn’t yet found his mojo, delivering his lines with frequent pauses and not knowing what to do with his body. Jean Arthur appears too briefly, though we get to hear her…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
I don't fault Powell for looking a little stiff and uncomfortable since adapting to a new format can take time. But by "The Kennel Murder Case" Powell was ready to knock 'em dead. Here, he's still a star but the film saddles him with rather blah material he tries to make work. The print I found for this film was trash, unfortunately, so I just appreciated the chance to even see it period. So I will need to see "Pandora's Box" like soon so I can get Louise's depressing turn here (studios can be petty but it would have been cool if Brooks had put aside her own ego and provide the dub, but, oh well...) erased from the mind.…
me: doesn't understand poker
me during the poker game: "yes, yes, just as I suspected uh huh uh huh."
Like The Greene Murder Case, I watched this for Jean Arthur, despite not liking the previous film. While in The Greene Murder Case it felt like the actors were carrying the material, the opposite was the case here. The acting felt incredibly stilted, but the story itself I enjoyed a little more. The opening trapeze/swing sequence was impressive for the late-20's film.
Made at Paramount Studios, this was an early entry into the Philo Vance detective series starring William Powell. Filmed as a silent picture and then retooled for sound, this film is notable today mainly as a curio and for the appearance of the legendary Louise Brooks, who plays The Canary of the title. At the time, she was an increasingly popular contract player at Paramount. Her character's real name in the movie is Margaret O'Dell, the star of a musical revue. As The Canary, Margaret apparently has little to do other than wear a rather bizarre, skimpy costume covered in bird feathers while sitting on a swing attached to the ceiling, enabling her to swing back and forth over the…
A botched attempt at turning a silent into a sound picture, with Louise Brooks refusing to return to Paramount for reshoots and having her scenes redubbed horrendously by Margaret Livingston. It may be stubbornly static and often cringeworthy but it does feature a good old plot with ridiculous contrivances, and presents William Powell and Jean Arthur in their first sound performances. Powell (and Eugene Pallette) hit the ground running and establish their sound personas effectively - it would take Arthur some more years before she grew into her abilities. Brooks looks stunning, obviously, and has aura if not aural.
Charles Spottswoode is happy when his son Jimmie breaks off his affair with conniving showgirl Margaret O'Dell – known as "The Canary" – and reconciles his engagement with her co-star and neighbor Alice La Fosse. Spottswoode goes to see The Canary to bribe her to leave Jimmie alone, but she declines his offer.
She is also having making plenty of enemies with a wide array of people. So, it's no surprise when she ends up dead.
William Powell is always fun to watch, but the film. Is not well constructed. It just feels flat.
The Canary Murder Case was the first in a series of films involving author S.S. Van Dyne's detective Philo Vance, a series that stretched across two studios and at least two leading men. (I could easily be missing something here.) Given how laborious this movie is, it's amazing that it went beyond this point, though it's hard to untangle where most of the fault lies.
As it exists today, The Canary Murder Case is an example of that awkward point in time silent movies were giving way to sound. Much like Howard Hughes's Hell's Angels, this started life as a silent movie, but Paramount made the rash decision to reshoot much of it with sound after much of it had…
Which lousy man that Louse Brooks has seduced, blackmailed, and discarded killed her? These guys are adulterous, embezzling, violently possessive jerks who are furious she didn’t turn out to be the consequence-free diversion they’re used to… and we’re meant to be on their side. The film hates her (or at least thinks she got what was coming to her) and finds her fully to blame for their bad behavior. It constantly minimizes her humanity—she’s only ever referred to as “the canary,” even by the people investigating her murder.
That’s not great! Also, it’s boring. Stilted and sleepy, this early talkie wastes Jean Arthur as the anti-Brooks (a prissy, nagging “good girl”) and leaves the usually great William Powell nothing to…
Very early talkies are quite interesting - you can practically see them figuring things out as they go. It's not for nothing they used to call them Photo Plays. As for this, Louise Brooks rocks that hairstyle like nobody's business. (Eat your heart out, Eve Ensler.)
