The Case of the Black Parrot

...not great. The premise of a stolen antique is somewhat different for this low budget war-era mystery. Could have been better, but the leading man is too stiff and the murders come too late despite the fast pace. Worth it only to see some ingenious means of death by furniture and to learn why the name of the criminal is the Black Parrot.

Reporter William Lundigan and his sidekick photographer Eddie Foy,Jr. meet up with Maris Wrixson and her uncle on an ocean liner away from war torn Europe.. She's traveling with the uncle and an antique cabinet. After the cabinet is master forger the Black Parrot. Known by said name for his skill at copying stuff.

After the uncle's murder and several false leads the reporters actually capture the notorious crook. I have to say I had it figured out and I think you will too.

Routine mystery from the Warner Brothers B unit.

This Warner B mystery begins aboard ship. Paul Vantine is shipping back to America a forged version of the Boule Cabinet. The Boule is a Louis XIV style antique housed in Paris. He's an admirer of the forger known as the Black Parrot. With him is his niece (Maris Wrixon) and her new beau (William Lundigan). Inspecting the cabinet in his stateroom, Vantine is outraged to find that he has the original Boule, as he is so intent of having the Black Parrot copy. During a faked alarm call when all passengers have to report to the ship's lifeboats, the stateroom gets broken into and the cabinet opened. Somebody is after something the cabinet secretly contains. Later there are murders and various people have an interest in the Boule. I think vintage mystery fans will like this one.

In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made hundreds, if not thousands of cheap B-mystery movies. Most have a certain sameness about them--and "The Case of the Black Parrot" is no exception. What do they have in common? Well, usually the police are pretty dim and it takes a non-professional (often a newspaper man or woman) to solve some murders. They also usually have the most convoluted plots and schemes. Because this film is so typical, I cannot highly recommend it...but it's not terrible.

The case involves a piece of furniture being shipped from France to the Unites States. But later, folks involves with it start dying...with marks much like snake fangs on the back of the hand of the victims. So, it's up to (naturally) a bright newspaper man (William Lundigan) to put the clues together and capture the baddie...though the baddie pretty much just turns himself in at the end. Few real surprises and, of course, a fantastical sort of way of killing people.

The Black Parrot is a notorious forger who is rumored to have stolen the Mona Lisa. Paul Vantine has purchased a cabinet despite suspecting it as a Black Parrot fake. He is certain that even a forgery would climb in value due to the exemplary work. Paul and his niece Sandy Vantine show the cabinet to reporter Jim Moore, and his buddy Tripod Daniels. Upon further inspection, Paul realizes that it is actually the real deal worth $250k.

I've never heard of this movie, or the play, or the novel, or the author. That's the vast majority of literary works in the history of humanity. Not everyone or everything become the popular zeitgeist. Nothing is really standing out in this movie. Jim Moore isn't that interesting. None of the actors are really breaking through. They seem like fine professionals. It's a run-of-the-mill murder mystery in a mansion. It's all rather borderline nothingness.