The Canary Murder Case a Philo Vance Story

Philo Vance is a wealthy man-about-town who solves mysteries in his free time, which he has a lot of. In this case, it is the murder of the "Canary," Margaret Odell, a former Follies girl who was strangled in her apartment. Margaret was basically a courtesan, who had a series of well-paying lovers and at least one lover (Skeel) who was leeching off her. A number of men - former and current lovers - just happened to be in the area at the time. Even the male switchboard operator is a possible suspect.

Philo Vance and his creator, S S Van Dine (Willard Huntington Wright) are both something of an acquired taste. Many people find the books to be dated and perhaps they are. Vance is very effete and prone to obscure literary quotes. He seems to regard the crime solving as a game. There are times when you would just love to shake him because he's being so annoying. However, Van Dine could craft fascinating, complicated mysteries. I have read three of his novels so far and never came close to figuring out who did it.

To quote [a:Julian Symons|30747|Julian Symons|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1274213689p2/30747.jpg]:

"It should be said that the best of the Van Dine stories are models of construction. Utterly remote from real life, they remain fascinating by strict adherence to the rules of their own dotty logic, and through their creator's self-absorbed immersion in his own work."

The story is pure puzzle with little to no emotional involvement and rather flat characters. I do not mean that as an insult. Sometimes it's nice to read a mystery story that's just mystery and not full of details regarding the detective's love life or drinking habits, recipes for chocolate cake, or cute cat stories (and I'm a cat lover!). A couple years ago, I read a collection of recent mystery short stories. The editor commented about the difference in mysteries today with vintage mysteries like "Canary". He said, "They don't write stories like that any more." No, unfortunately, they don't.

A few notes about "Canary":

1. It was made into a very early talkie (1929) with William Powell (as Philo Vance) and Louise Brooks (as the Canary). It was originally filmed as a silent movie. However, with the success of "The Jazz Singer," a decision was made to dub "Canary." There was one problem - Louise Brooks had fled to Germany to make movies and refused to return to the US to record her lines. This led to her famous banishment from Hollywood films. Another actress, Margaret Livingstone, recorded the lines instead. A second Vance movie was filmed in 1933 based on "The Kennel Murder Case" and also starred William Powell as Philo Vance.

2. The story is based on the real-life murder of Dot King (Anna Marie Hearn), also known as the "Broadway Butterfly." A 28-year-old "artist's model", Dot was really more of a courtesan or call girl. Like Margaret Odell, Dot had an older male "protector" and a boyfriend who took her money and abused her. She was found dead in her apartment in 1923. She had been chloroformed to death. The killer was never found. However, there is a theory that she was accidentally killed. Another woman in the same line of work died in a similar manner about the same time. It was believed that robbers were preying on "kept women." They would break into the women's apartments, chloroform them, and then steal what they could get away with. In two of the cases, they overdid the chloroform and the women died. However, this was never proven.

3. Philo Vance was the inspiration for Ellery Queen. You can see the resemblance in the early Queen novels.