The Case of the Black Parrot

Aboard a ship, newspaper reporter Jim Moore falls for passenger Sandy Vantine and meets her Uncle Paul, who is in possession of a small wooden chest that he believes could be a copy made by the mysterious Black Parrot, a notorious art forger. Scotland Yard inspector Colonel Piggott is also aboard, presumably on the Parrot's tail.

Jim proposes to Sandy and meets her relatives and family acquaintances. They include Madame de Charierre, the chest's rightful owner, whose maid Julia had been trying to retrieve it because a secret drawer contained compromising love letters. A police constable, Grady, arrives, so Jim gets in touch with Piggott as well. Paul and another guest quickly end up dead, Piggott quickly declaring that everyone in the house a suspect.

A second hidden compartment contains priceless diamonds. Jim and Sandy realize just in time that Piggott himself is the Black Parrot, after the jewels all along.

T.S. of The New York Times said, "A talkative little puzzler is The Case of the Black Parrot, now at the Palace. It is complete with standard equipment—a priceless old cabinet with secret drawers, a be-ribboned packet of scented letters, veiled women bearing a double identity, muffled figures silhouetted at the library window as the clock chimes midnight, and a butler with a guilt complex (probably because all the scenarists are pointing the finger of suspicion at him, but that doesn't fool us any more). But somehow each moment of suspense is merely a prelude to long-winded deductions in the library. In short, The Case of the Black Parrott is on the verbose side, though there's no such bird in it."[3]

• The Case of the Black Parrot at IMDb
• The Case of the Black Parrot at AllMovie
• The Case of the Black Parrot at the TCM Movie Database
• The Case of the Black Parrot at the American Film Institute Catalog