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The Canary Murder Case

Director: Malcolm St. Clair (Dir) Release Date: 16 Feb 1929 Duration (in mins): 80 Duration (in feet): 7,171 Duration (in reels): 7			Print this page Display Movie Summary

Cast:	William Powell	(Philo Vance)
	James Hall	(Jimmy Spotswoode)
	Louise Brooks	(Margaret O'Dell)
	Jean Arthur	(Alys La Fosse)
	Gustav von Seyffertitz	(Dr. Ambrose Lindquist)
	Charles Lane	(Charles Spotswoode)
	Eugene Pallette	(Ernest Heath)
	Lawrence Grant	(Charles Cleaver)
	Ned Sparks	(Tony Skeel)
	Louis John Bartels	(Louis Mannix)
	E. H. Calvert	(Markham)
	George Y. Harvey
	Oscar Smith
	Tim Adair

Summary:

Margaret O'Dell, a blackmailing musical comedy star, is found strangled in her apartment, and four men come under suspicion: Lindquist, a half-mad doctor in love with Margaret; Cleaver, a politician whose career she threatened; Mannix, a fat broker with a jealous wife; and Jimmy Spotswoode, a young society boy Margaret was attempting to blackmail into marriage. Jimmy is arrested, and Philo Vance, a whimsical society man and amateur detective who is a close friend of Jimmy's father, is called in on the case. Vance proves the murderer to have been the elder Spotswoode.

Production Company:	Paramount Famous Lasky Corp.
Distribution Company:	Paramount Famous Lasky Corp.
Director:	Malcolm St. Clair	(Dir)
Writer:	Florence Ryerson	(Adpt)
	Albert S. Le Vino	(Adpt)
	S. S. Van Dine	(Dial)
	Herman J. Mankiewicz	(Titles)
Photography:	Harry Fischbeck	(Dir of photog)
Film Editor:	William Shea	(Film ed)
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Series:	Philo Vance

Music:
Songs:
Source Text:	Based on the novel The "Canary" Murder Case; a Philo Vance Story by S. S. Van Dine (New York, 1927).
Authors:	S. S. Van Dine

Copyright Claimant	Copyright Date	Copyright Number
Paramount Famous Lasky Corp.	15/2/1929 dd/mm/yyyy	LP126

Physical Properties:	Sd:	Movietone
	Sd, also Si:	Also si; 6,554 ft.
	b&w:


Genre:	Drama
Sub-Genre:	Detective

Subjects (Major):	Blackmail
	Brokers
	Detectives
	District attorneys
	Murder
	Physicians
	Politicians

Note:	The Canary Murder Case was the first film in which novelist S. S. Van Dine's popular detective "Philo Vance" appeared in a film. William Powell revived his role as Vance in four additional films, including The Greene Murder Case , released later in 1929 (see entry below). For information on other films featuring Vance, please consult the entry below for the 1934 Warner Bros. film The Kennel Murder Case , directed by Michael Curtiz and also starring Powell.

Bibliographic Sources:	Date	Page
Film Daily	17 Mar 1929.
New York Times	11 Mar 1929	p. 22.
Variety	13 Mar 1929.

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.



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