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
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…
“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…
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…
Part of my list of movies with the word MURDER in their titles
A man's true nature always comes out in a game of poker.
So says Philo Vance (William Powell) in this rather entertaining silent film refashioned into a talkie. If you hate silent films ignore this movie since the silent feel of this partly remains (and that, I think, is helpful). At one point in this Powell walks around contemplating the case and then sits for 181 continuous seconds without any dialogue being uttered.
Not a Bill Powell fan?
Then you probably won't find this movie interesting. But Powell is interesting to watch herein even when he is doing very little and I liked how the film goes through the suspects with much more depth than was done in and doesn't have the rushed feel that the latter film had.
6.25/10
me: doesn't understand poker
me during the poker game: "yes, yes, just as I suspected uh huh uh huh."
Detective: *has completely obscure reasoning for pinning the murder on someone and makes absolutely no sense*
“And suddenly it all became clear to me”
Paramount
1.20:1
Monochrome
35mm
PG
“No other man should ever have you alive!”
While the central mystery of The Canary Murder Case is both interesting and compelling. It is the execution and narrative that severely alienates and underwhelms the experience. Granted, it should be noted this is one of the first of its kind and ultimately it will and does show. That being said, it is the far too dialogue-driven and slow final third as well as the climax that slows this to an almost instant stop, the reveals are not clever, not witty, and not engaging enough to satisfy.
40
I paused this to record a clip of William Powell saying “Now Jimmy, don’t get worked up — everything is going to be alright,” and once the movie ended I made it the alarm tone on my phone. I think it’s going to make me a happier person
Tell me you're a weirdly edited early talkie without telling me you're a weirdly edited early talkie.
C'était à la fois plus quelconque et moins décousu que So Dark the Night, et je pourrais bien mettre un coeur pour ma chère Louise Brooks, mais on la voit presque pas, elle se fait tuer après 10-15 minutes de film, t'sais. Mais sinon, y'a William Powell, que j'aime vraiment beaucoup, qui se prend pour un proto-Nick Charles (The Thin Man), et ça m'a surtout donné envie de mettre la main sur toutes les suites vaguement introuvables de The Thin Man.
Dans tous les cas, c'est pas un whodunnit très mémorable, j'ai su qui était l'assassin à la seconde où on voit le déroulement de la soirée et de la nuit du meurtre, mais je ne sais pas à quel…
