The interlude between silent movies and talkies was an interesting one. Paramount Pictures had vowed in October 1928 not to release any movies that weren't all-talkies--with the exception to those theaters not wired for sound yet. It had a number of silents in the middle of production that needed to have talking segments added to satisfy the thirst of a public loving what it had seen so far in the early talkies. Silent versions of these dialogue-filled pictures were still going to be made for more rural areas, but the talkie revolution was happening at a quickened pace in the larger cities. One of the first silents to be converted to a talkie was February 1929's "The Canary Murder Case." Production had wrapped up by October 12, 1928. Paramount called back all the actors and actresses who appeared in the film to reshoot the scenes involving dialogue. Everyone came back, with the exception of one.
Louise Brooks had demanded a hefty bonus to reshoot her portion of "The Canary Murder Case." Her character was killed 15 minutes into the movie, so there wasn't that much dialogue to film. Paramount refused to meet her demands. Her contract expired after the "Canary" filming ended before she traveled to Germany to accept German director G. W. Pabst's offer to act as the lead in "Pandora's Box." Brooks refused to return when the studio didn't budge on her bonus request. According to some, that refusal limited her movie opportunities in Hollywood when she returned two years later from Europe.
Paramount knew "The Canary Murder Case" was going to be a complete bomb unless it released a talkie version. In lieu of Brooks' abscence, the producers hired actress Margaret Livingston, the temptress in 1927 F. W. Murnau's "Sunrise," to be Brooks' body double in the wide shots where she was made up to look like her from behind while she was talking. They used other tricks, such as hiding Livingston behind a cabinet to appear as if Louise were conversing with a potential killer. But all that dubbing didn't fool viewers. Critic Louella Parsons, the Los Angeles Examiner critic, noticed. "You are conscious that the words spoken do not actually emanate from the mouth of Miss Brooks and you feel that as much of her part as possible has been cut. She is unbelievably bad in a role that should have been well suited to her. Only long shots are permitted of her and even these are far from convincing when she speaks." The angry executives at Paramount began to smear Brooks, falsely claiming the studio was forced to do the dub job because Brooks' voice was so bad, which wasn't the case.
"The Canary Murder Case" was based on a series of popular crime mystery novels by the pseudonym writer S. S. Van Dine (real author: Willard Huntington Wright). The 1929 film kicked off a string of 16 movies over 20 years, with Detective Philo Vance solving every case. Actor William Powell appeared as the detective in four of the first five movies. In "Canary," Brooks plays a stage girl, Margaret O'Dell, who loves married men. She claims her ex-boyfriend, Jimmy Spotswoode (James Hall), has embezzled money from his dad's bank. Jimmy denies such a charge. His father visits her apartment to try to bribe Margaret to keep her quiet. Jimmy is about to marry Alice La Fosse (Jean Arthur) and doesn't need any headaches from 'The Canary" Margaret squawking. The next morning she's found dead.
"The Canary Murder Case" was the first speaking role for Jean Arthur. She was extremely hesitant to transfer over from silent to sound movies. But when the actress realized talkies weren't just a fad, she knew she had to accept speaking parts. Her few speaking lines in "Canary" didn't impress critics. She looked back at her talking debut and said she was a "very poor actress. I was awfully anxious to improve, but was inexperienced so far as genuine training was concerned." At the time, Paramount was scouting Broadway actors with great voice articulation and live stage experience. Arthur decided to take some time off to act in a few New York CIty plays to become comfortable speaking in front of a live audience. At the same time she received expert vocal lessons from coaches who knew more about voice projection than miming physical movements on the screen.
