The White Cockatoo (1935)

Wonderful Movie

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Associate producer: Henry Blanke. Copyright 29 January 1935 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Astor: 15 January 1935. Australian release: 8 May 1935. 7 reels. 73 minutes.SYNOPSIS: An American heiress is marked for murder at a lonely French hotel.COMMENT: Although the film starts far more promisingly than it finishes, "The White Cockatoo" is a fascinatingly atmospheric mystery, superbly enacted by a fine cast of players, including the lovely Jean Muir as the vulnerable heroine, dashing Ricardo Cortez as the helpful hero, shady Gordon Westcott as a mysterious "doctor", eccentric Ruth Donnelly as a matronly guest, and Minna Gombell as a conspiratorial inn-keeper. Most of the action takes place at night, enabling director Alan Crosland and photographer Tony Gaudio many dramatically atmospheric effects, all artistically framed, such as the shot of Jean Muir against the sea.OTHER VIEWS: A nicely complicated mystery, its atmosphere somewhat undermined by the casting of Walter Kingsford as a French inn- keeper, of all things. He mugs and over-acts atrociously. Fortunately, the rest of the players, including blonde charmer, Jean Muir, equally attractive Pauline Garon, suave John Eldredge and brusque Gordon Westcott make valiant efforts to save the picture from Kingsford's clutches. Thanks to Crosland's skillful direction and Gaudio's tingling photography, they succeed. - JHR writing as George Addison.

Routine whodunit, more complex than most. Seems Sue (Muir) travels to a French village to meet her long lost brother, so that once their identities are confirmed, they'll share a big inheritance. Trouble is people start turning up dead at their hotel, while Sue seemingly overcomes physics by appearing in more than one place at the same time. So what's going on.Unlike the Hollywood custom of the day, there's no amateur sleuth operating here. Instead guest Sundean (Cortez) stumbles around along with the French cops. Reviewer GManfred is right: the narrative lacks suspense. I think it's mainly because there are too many angles at play at the same time. In short, too many subplots detract from needed whodunnit focus. Instead, there's dark Gothic atmosphere, along with a single wind recording that blows throughout. Anyway, Muir looks pretty, Donnelly acts ditzy, while the Cockatoo qualifies for SAG membership. But anything memorable, it's not.

Some young actresses are just too good to really be film stars, and in the 1930's, such Broadway stars as Helen Hayes, Lynn Fontanne, Judith Anderson and Tallulah Bankhead made an attempt to move to the big screen with limited success. One of the less remembered of these names was a Warner Brothers contract player named Jean Muir, and for several years in the 1930's, the studio tried to make her a star. As talented as she was, she was never given the right role to really explode her film career, although some of these films are quite enjoyable. An attractive blonde, she certainly wasn't a sexpot like Jean Harlow, nor a clothes horse like Constance Bennett or Miriam Hopkins. She comes closer in looks to the very regal Ann Harding or a young Alice Faye, both actresses of different types who were perfect for one type of part but never given the opportunity to move past the types of roles they were given. Muir, like Harding, appeared in mostly dramas, and for some of them, she often supported such major stars as Ruth Chatterton or Kay Francis, and in most of them was overshadowed by her leading man.In "The White Cockatoo", she is given a standard film heroine role, the alleged heiress to a fortune, here in "The Cat and the Canary" territory as the apparent victim of a scam which leads to several murders. Having been separated from her wealthy father and brother as a child, she has been notified that her brother is on his way to give her a bequest from her recently deceased father, and this leads to the killings. The hotel owner's pet cockatoo may just be the witness to the crime, as guest Ricardo Cortez reveals, pets and children are better judges of character than adults. Minna Gombell and Walter Kingsford are instantly suspicious as the hotel owners, while there's no doubt that the eccentric American guest (Ruth Donnelly) is simply there for much needed comic relief. Muir insists to several witnesses that she is not the woman they spotted in another part of the hotel, and that leads to even more mystery which the local police appear to be too stupid to solve. If only Inspector Clouseau was around, they might actually get something done! Atmospheric and thrilling on a technical level, this still has a familiar ring to it as entertaining as it is, but there's something about those lush Warner Brothers sets and that acerbic dialog that makes for exciting film viewing. The clue club series at Warner Brothers was a mixed bag, but this was a good entry to get the series off the ground.

The White Cockatoo is a well-paced and well-plotted old dark house mystery starring Ricardo Cortez (very good as usual) and pretty Jean Muir, an all-but-forgotten actress who bore a striking resemblance to Gloria Stuart. Set in a remote French hotel (on the Warner's back lot), and utilizing several authentically French actors in minor roles, the story involves an attempted kidnapping, a stolen inheritance, several impersonations and a couple of murders. Though typical of the second feature crime dramas of the era, it's a much-better-than-average version of that genre and makes for an enjoyable 73 minutes of intrigue, with hidden rooms, stolen papers, long-lost siblings and some genuine surprises. The main attraction here is the strong supporting cast of Warner's stalwarts: Addison Richards, Ruth Donnelly, Minna Gombell (more glamorous than usual), Walter Kingsford, John Eldredge and Gordon Westcott. Oh, and there's also a nice little performance by Poochie, the titular white cockatoo. They all manage to bring some dimension to the characters, a quality which--along with a well-constructed story and better pacing than the average film of this ilk--elevates the picture to what I would call a B+. Highly recommended for fans of the genre.