AllMovie

Based on a mystery novel by Mignon Eberhart, The White Cockatoo concerns three mysterious murders at a French chateau. The villain seems determined to bump off all the friends and relatives of Sue Talley (Jean Muir) and Jim Sundean (Ricardo Cortez), hoping thereby to get his (or her) hands on the fortune they've inherited. Clouding the issue is the curious behavior of ostensible hero Sundean, who may very well be behind the killings. Though reviewers complained that they couldn't make heads or tails of the storyline, audiences didn't seem to share this confusion. Still, it would have been nice if screenwriters Ben Markson and Lillie Hayward had been more faithful to the Eberhart original.