Sun 9 Mar 2025
Diary Review: S. S. VAN DINE – The “Canary” Murder Case.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews[6] Comments
S. S. VAN DINE – The “Canary” Murder Case. Philo Vance #2. Charles Scribner’s Sons, hardcover, 1927. Reprinted many times, including Gold Medal T2004, paperback. 1968. Film: Paramount Pictures, 1929, with William Powell as Philo Vance.
For the most part, Philo Vance is a dispassionate and impartial observer, often with an air of studious amusement, analyzing the crime and suspects impartially, yet he has bursts of enthusiasm that keep him well involved in the problem at hand.
His attorney S. S. Van Dine, who records his exploits for posterity, has nothing to say. Ever.
The studious amusement reaches cynicism and class snobbery, however, and can you believe getting all the murder suspects together in the District Attorney’s apartment to play poker as a pretext for learning their basic characters? The murder of Margaret Odell, popularly known as the “Canary,” is a locked room mystery, but Vance withholds vital information not only from the police, but from the reader as well.
The explanations are overdone by far; most of what is happening is clear, but definitely not to the police or to District Attorney Markham. The mystery and solution are otherwise quite adequate.
Rating: **½
March 9th, 2025 at 10:01 pm
In The Canary Murder Case and other William Powell Vance films, Eugene Pallette as Sergeant Heath walks away with the acting honors.
March 10th, 2025 at 7:05 am
Eugene Pallette was one of those great characters actors who elevated every film he was ever in. I always look forward to watching him
March 10th, 2025 at 1:19 pm
I agree with both you and Barry. I wouldn’t watch a movie just because he’s in it, but Pallette always makes a big impression on me whenever he’s in one that comes my way.
March 10th, 2025 at 7:10 am
Philo Vance was an important character in the development of the detective story, but his time came and went as soon as most people realized he truly did deserve that “kick in the pants.” I read the first book in the series many years ago and have been trying to gear up my courage to read another ever since.
March 10th, 2025 at 1:12 pm
That sums up Mr. Vance from my perspective too, Jerry. Important in the history of detective fiction at the time, but way out of date for today’s readers.
March 14th, 2025 at 10:27 pm
The strict structure of the Vance books hurt them, with the murderer showing up on the same page and virtually the same paragraph in most Vance novels, and there is no doubt Vance is a pain in the nether region, but I admit a warm spot for the books and for the Van Dine school that was, for its time, far more politically aware than anything in the genre with its treatment of minorities.
High handed he might be, and certainly dispassionate, but among the virtues of the Vance books is that unlike most mystery writers Van Dine/Wright was as erudite, educated, cultured, and sophisticated as his sleuth and that showed. Some of that high handedness remained a mark of the sub genre it created as some fairly remarkable writers like Oursler, Biggers, and Stout mined that same streak of gold.
Any genre that gives you Philo Vance, Charlie Chan, Ellery Queen, and Nero Wolfe has to be given its due.