The Crimson Canary

I've never seen the film either but the Esquire Jazz All-stars sequence is over on you tube, just search for Crimson Canary (the Josh White clip is there too) - see the comment there that the musicians actually playing are not the ones that were filmed (sadly enough) ... N --- PS. I guess I might as well duplicate my comments here since IMDb won't let me post a comment under 10 lines: Unfortunately (according to David Meeker's Jazz in the Movies) the featured musicians are not the ones actually playing! The musicians are: Nick Cochrane - trumpet; Eddie Parkers - lead trumpet; Dale Nichols - trombone; Barney Bigard -clnt; King Guion - tenor; Stan Wrightsman - piano; Budd Hatch - bass; Mel Torme - drums. Why the Esquire all-stars weren't good enough to play their own music one can only guess but I suspect it was a licensing or union thing. BTW, the other musicians pictured there besides Howard McGhee, Oscar Pettiford, and Coleman Hawkins are Sir Charles Thompson on piano and Denzil Best on drums ... N

I first saw "The Crimson Canary" in the early 1970's when I was getting really interested in 1930's and 1940's jazz and swing, and contrary to dadoun-1's review, the sequence featuring the Coleman Hawkins-Oscar Pettiford band on screen DOES include Hawkins, Pettiford and the other musicians in the group (trumpeter Howard McGhee, pianist Sir Charles Thompson and drummer Denzil DaCosta Best) on the soundtrack as well. The musicians dadoun-1 mentions were actually the off-screen doubles for the white actors playing the members of the band at the heart of the film's story. (These are the only recordings I know of by tenor saxophonist King Guion, whom critic George T. Simon predicted would become a star. Too bad he didn't, as he's quite good even if not at Hawkins' level.) I've been in love with this movie ever since and I only wish Universal Home Video would do a proper DVD or Blu-Ray version instead of the lousy splice-ridden copy I just got from a grey-label source that omitted the opening song, "I Never Knew I Could Love Anybody." And I'm amused that the original ads promised a sleazy exploitation movie - "Rhythm Cults Exposed!" - when the film actually treats the jazz world of 1945 with unusual respect and even love.

1945's "The Crimson Canary" was a Universal mystery with a twist, the main suspects are jazz musicians, allowing for about 20 minutes of music to detract from the investigation. Noah Beery Jr. heads the cast as the trumpet playing bandleader, who discovers the body of their flirtatious singer (Claudia Drake), dead from a fractured skull, in the same back room as her unconscious fiancée, the group's drummer. With a young Mel Torme dubbing the drums, the music holds more intrigue than the whodunit angle (the killer's identity is hardly a surprise), but John Litel steals it as the detective with a fine ear. This film aired twice on Pittsburgh's CHILLER THEATER, although it was never included in Universal's popular SHOCK! package of classic horror films first issued to television in the late 50's, which still featured a number of non horror titles. Also shown on CHILLER THEATER was another whodunit with music, 1944's "Murder in the Blue Room" (also with John Litel), but at least that one featured an actual ghost, albeit a comic one. Other non SHOCK! Universals to air on CHILLER THEATER included 1934's "The Crosby Case," "The Man Who Reclaimed His Head," and "Rendezvous at Midnight," 1938's "The Black Doll," "The Crime of Doctor Hallet," and "The Missing Guest," 1939's "The House of Fear," 1940's "The Invisible Woman," 1941's "The Black Cat," 1942's "Invisible Agent," and 1944's "Jungle Woman."

Noah Beery Jr and his group are playing to great reception at Steve Geray's jazz club. Their next stop is San Francisco, and Geray says he'll call a friend in the area to give them a gig. But before they can vacate, they find the corpse of singer Claudia Drake. They argue a bit over what to do, and decide to split. When Geray finds the corpse, he notifies the police, and jazz-loving John Litel takes off after Beery and pals.

It's a very nice little mystery, with not only a goodly number of standard red herrings to distract the audience, but some good music, too. Coleman Hawkins shows up, and see if you can spot Mel Torme as a drummer. Best of all is Josh White playing the guitar and singing two songs in a row.... probably structured so he could be cut out of the movie at the Whites-only houses down South. John Hoffman may be better remembered as an editor than a director, but this is a nifty little B picture.

...because there just isn't that much story here. A vocalist in a small dive of a club is flirting with all of the five members of a jazz band, trying to get her hooks into one. Why I don't know. It's not like she is Yoko Ono and these guys are the Beatles. They are impoverished musicians on the way up - maybe- living out of a suitcase. The beginning shows Danny (Noah Beery, Jr.) telling the vocalist, Anita (Claudia Drake), to leave Johnny alone - he's promised to marry her and Danny says he'll kill her if she doesn't back off.

Then after the next number Anita's bludgeoned body is found in the back room by the quintet. Johnny blacked out during the time of the murder so he doesn't know if he did it. Danny is the leader of the band, and says that, before anybody else discovers the body, they should just all pack up and leave as though they never saw anything, and go to their next gig. So that is what they do, except the police are waiting. So they split up waiting for the heat to be off. But the heat is never off when it comes to murder.

And so for the next thirty minutes you are mainly following Danny around as he is always looking over his shoulder for the police. Danny turns out to be engaged to a girl with an inquiring mind who goes looking for the real perpetrator. In this interim period that really has no surprises there is a great jazz performance by Coleman Hawkes.

The end finds the jazz quintet right back at Vic's club, the scene of the crime, where detective Quinn (John Litel) is waiting for them. Now how Quinn got this job is crazy. The commissioner thought he would be good at it because he likes jazz? Crazy man, crazy.

The ending is not that big of a surprise because of the claustrophobic scene of the crime and therefore limited number of suspects, but for what The Crimson Canary lacks in plot it makes up in atmosphere and some great jazz. Just realize that this film is more hep cat than Hitchcock and you should enjoy it.