Robert J. Maxwell One of the best lines in the movie: Louise Brooks, with her signature do and a voice that sounds like a yelping Chihuahua, calls up a newspaper editor and announces that she's going to marry the scion of a prominent family. "Well, well, may I send you my congratulations." Brooks: "You bet you can -- and send them from Tiffany's." (PS: Kids, Tiffany's is a very expensive jewelry store and also the name of the family that owns every diamond mine in Africa, not that the last observation matters here.) Brooks is the "canary", a sluttish nightclub performer who has her hooks into young Spottwoode and intends to marry him and improve her social station. Old Spottswoode objects, of course, but Brooks threatens to tell the press that Young Spottswoode has embezzled money from his old man's bank.She's been around and has something against everyone, the kind of woman you wouldn't want to get to know. Well, maybe you would, but you should never permit her to get to know YOU. So she's extorting old Spottswoode. She's also extorting the newspaper editor. She's extorting others. And every extortee wishes her grievous harm."Listen, baby, a little thing like a divorce don't mean nothing to me. I just heard you taking those suckers down over the phone." That's Brooks' husband or ex husband, recently released from the Crowbar Hotel. "Say, I oughtta bump you off." This woman makes enemies of everyone.Of course, somebody offs her mysteriously in her flat. It's at this point, twenty minutes into the movie, that we discover that William Powell is Philo Vance, detective. He and the police work together to solve the canary's murder.The police act as if mentally hobbled. Somehow their suspicions fall largely on young Spottswoode and his girl friend Alice. It's odd because the two of them have been together before and after the canary's murder. Jean Arthur is a brunette Alice and has the same curiously appealing nasal voice that she would have ten years later, but not yet the acting chops. She shows up only for a few seconds.The movie is strictly routine. Powell has his usual clipped pronunciation, but nobody else brings much to their roles. The direction is terrible. Dynasties rise and fall, Eons come and go, while actors stand looking at one another in silence. And the plot isn't really worth carrying on about.Powell was enchanting in the Thin Man series. Here, he's just another sober sleuth, putting together the jigsaw pieces of a puzzling crime.

kidboots In "Paramount on Parade" William Powell essayed a spot on parody of Philo Vance, an intellectual man-about-town amateur detective, and when he was shot Inspector Heath (Eugene Palette) happily congratulated Fu Manchu. S.S. Van Dine had written his first Vance book in 1926 - "The Benson Murder Case", and it was a huge success. Philo Vance was independently wealthy and was always called into the cases by Heath when the police had given up - of course he always solved the crime!! In 1929 Paramount acquired the film rights to the first three Van Dine books and the first to roll out was "The Canary Murder Case". William Powell who had excelled in villainous roles was a brilliant choice for Vance. He played up the suavity and intellectualism but eliminated the stuffiness and pretentiousness that was quickly turning a lot of readers off!!Louise Brooks in feathers was enough to make this movie memorable, even though you didn't hear her distinctive throbby voice. She played "The Canary", a beautiful blackmailing showgirl who has set her sights on marrying into society and has her claws into Jimmy (James Hall) who in turn has patched things up with fellow show- girl Alice (for all Jean Arthur's top billing she has two small scenes).Definitely not as interesting as "The Greene Murder Case", once Brooks departed (she was the victim) after 15 minutes, there were no more ladies to brighten up proceedings. The plot was then propelled by a group of suspects - most of them older men whom the Canary was blackmailing. The climax came with a poker game, staged by the insufferable Mr. Vance, in an effort to use psychology to flush out the murderer. Until then chief suspect is young Jimmy but in a twist the murderer is killed and Philo Vance then takes centre stage to explain just how the murder had been done. Most interesting character is good old Ned Sparks as, believe it or not, Louise's husband back from "up the river" and eager to get his hands on some of her ill gotten loot!!The film was caught in the middle of the talkie change over. Initially filmed as a silent in 1928 it was extensively re-shot to make it a 1929 all talkie, which explains Louise Brook's reluctance to return for dialogue dubbing. The studio got their revenge by substituting the "dese, dems and dose" voice of Margaret Livingston - you just couldn't imagine that voice issuing from Louise's fair lips.

calvinnme 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.

gerdav 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.