Despite the five favorable commentaries submitted to this forum, “The Yellow Canary”, the 1963 film that showed up on cable recently, it is not a good film. Evidently, it is a piece of nostalgia to those viewers that rated it so highly.

It is surprising that someone of the stature of Rod Serling could produce such paper thin premise as the one used in the narrative. It is too obvious who the kidnapper is from the start, so it comes as a no-brainer how this person could fool Andy Paxton, the man at the center of the story, as well as the police that are called to help solve the case.

The film shows a bland Pat Boone trying a dramatic role. Mr. Boone was a singer that had his popularity in the late 1950s, and early 1960s. As an actor, he was wise not to leave his daytime job. The direction of Buzz Kulik, a man that worked extensively on television, does not do anything out of the ordinary to stage the film in a different fashion that might have made a better movie. Barbara Eden’s Lissa does not make much sense either. Steve Forrest is about the one that fares best. Others in supporting roles include the great Jesse White, Jack Klugman, and Harold Gould.

The best thing is the crisp black and white photography by Floyd Crosby of the Los Angeles of that era. The jazzy musical score is by Kenyon Hopkins.