A one-day murder investigation involving actor Dan Aykroyd came to a sudden end when Calgary police officers discovered they were looking at old film footage.

An old film strip, found at a landfill, was given to police due to concerns about its grisly content.

It shows a man who is holding a knife, standing over what appears to be a dead body.

Calgary police spokesman Kevin Brookwell said it looked suspicious.

"This potentially looks like it could be a homicide, or someone capturing a homicide, or one of these snuff films," said Brookwell.

Investigators took it seriously until one of the officers noticed the man in the film looked like Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd.

Police used Google to match the image with a movie titled Loose Cannons, which starred Aykroyd.

"In the end, it was kind of humourous that it was just a movie and within the day of us finding out, we were able to move on," said Brookwell.

Calgary police did contact Aykroyd's agent.

Investigators still do not know how the footage ended up in a Calgary landfill.

When gossip site TMZ contacted Aykroyd about the film footage, his response was: "The movie should have been left in the landfill where it belongs."