All Talking All Night

 (imdb)

THE UNHOLY NIGHT-1929-Many murders are taking place during the worst fog ever in London. Lord Montague (Roland Young; later the star of the “Topper” series) survives an attack and is help to Scotland Yard where he meets Sir James (Claude Fleming) who's investigating. It seems there were 4 murders earlier and Montague knew and served with them all. The surviving members all agree to meet at the Lord's house. In another part of the house, James disrupts a seance being conducted by Dr. Ballou (Ernest Torrence) and his fiancé Lady Violet (Natalie Moorland), Montague's sister. 

The remaining regiment includes Lionel Belmore, John Loder and John Miljan as the doomed Mallory who was disfigured in the war. After he's killed, everyone comes under suspicion. Then a woman Efra (Dorothy Sebastian) shows up. Almost immediately Hindu lawyer Abdul (uncredited Boris Karloff) shows up and reads a will from Efra's father, a traitor. The will seems to give a motive for killing and also for breaking up the regiment. They slowly unravel. 

Somehow over night the entire regiment save Montague is killed. James decides to have a kind of seance lead by the sinister looking mystic Sojin (Sojin Kamiyama; who turns out to be a good guy).

It's a crazy, confused and kind of convoluted ending with Karloff giving a weird performance with a strange accent. This was one of the handful of films actor Lionel Barrymore directed in his long career. He and Karloff had acted together earlier in THE BELLS (1926). It also suffers slighty from too much stilted talk. A problem that plagued many early sound films. 

Top billed Ernest Terrence later played Prof. Moriarty in SHERLOCK HOLMES (1932) (with Clive Brook in the titular role) but died the next year from complications from surgery. Karloff had made his “talkie” debut earlier in the year (in BEHIND THAT CURTAIN). Japanese actor Sojin Kamiyama was one of only 3 Asian actors to portray Charlie Chan (in THE CHINESE PARROT (1927)). The story for THE UNHOLY NIGHT was provided by playwright Ben Hecht.

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Lights! Camera! Action! Sound!

 

LIGHTS OF NEW YORK-1928-This is a crude early sound gangster crime drama that's only remembered today because it was the first full sound movie. It's not very good with wooden acting, terrible musical numbers and it moves at a snail's pace. 

The basic story is about a sleazy nightclub owner/bootlegger Hawk Miller (Wheeler Oakman) framing a naive barber Eddie(Cullen Landis) for the killing of a police officer. One character says "You might get indigestion from too much chicken". Miller's plan doesn't turn out like he wants it to and he winds up mysteriously shot. Eddie's partner Gene (Eugene Pallete) tries to help by giving a shave to the dead Miller. When the hard nosed Detective Crosby (Robert Elliot) is ready to arrest Eddie, Molly, Miller's girlfriend (Gladys Brockwell) admits to killing Miller. 

LIGHTS OF NEW YORK is one of the few feature films directed Bryan Foy, a former vaudeville performer with the famous family group “The Seven Little Foys”. He began in movies as a gag writer for Buster Keaton and began directing in the early 1920's, making mainly short films. Later he produced many shorts and after that several features including THE HOUSE OF WAX.

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Early Chan

BEHIND THAT CURTAIN-1929-Creaky early sound film noted as the first feature film appearance of Charlie Chan (the character had appeared in a serial in 1926) and an early sound role for Boris Karloff. 

Sir George (Claude King) refuses to give his consent for his niece Eve (Lois Moran) to marry a “real bounder”, Colonel John Beetham (Warner Baxter),an explorer headed to African with the backing of George. Beetham is sweet on the weepy Eve but she seems to only have eyes for a guy named Eric (Phillip Strange). When George is murdered suspects abound. 21 minutes into this talky “filmed play” Chan’s name is mentioned by the pompous Sir Frederick (Gilbert Emory) of Scotland Yard. Then it’s back to the moody melodrama. Later in India Eve is the unhappy wife of the philandering Eric. 

 Not only does she find out Eric has had sex with their servant in their bed (a very provocative scene) but he’s also a murderer. Eve begs Beetham to take her with him to Africa so she can “disappear”. He reluctantly agrees. Soon after the annoying Sir Frederick visits Eric in connection with the disappearance of his wife. He suggests they rendezvous with John’s caravan. They meet up with John but Eve runs away. Later the Chan character finally shows up after more than an hour has gone by! He (the mysterious E.L. Park) and Harry Snapper Organs, I mean Sir Frederick finally set a trap for the murderer. While John is giving a lecture, Eve shows up. So does Eric... with a gun intent on killing her. Frederick takes a bullet for Eve (he doesn't die) and Chan kills Eric.

Despite some interesting pre-code scenes this soggy mystery is like watching paint dry with a lot of inane chatter. Plus the over wrought emoting of lead actress Moran and the “Mony Pythonese” performance by Emory as Sir Frederick really make this tough going. Karloff is Beetham’s faithful servant who doesn't do much. 

Director Irving Cummings was also an actor who started directing in 1921. Two years later he directed Warner Baxter again in THE CISCO KID. His last movie was DOUBLE DYNAMITE with Groucho Marx, Frank Sinatra and Jane Russell in 1951. BEHIND THE CURTAIN is based on the novel of the same name by Earl Derr Biggers published in 1928.

Warner Baxter had won a best actor Academy Award in 1927 playing The Cisco Kid in OLD ARIZONA (he was also the first American to win the award). In 1936 he was the movie industry's top actor but a series of nervous breakdowns inhibited his career. He came back in B-films, especially as “The Crime Doctor” in a series of movies but died in 1948 at age 62.

The next film appearance for Charlie Chan would be in the “lost” film CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON I n 1931 (Warner Oland's debut as the intrepid detective). That was followed by THE BLACK CAMEL (also 1931).

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Early '30's

THE DEATH KISS-1932-This murder-mystery is sometimes advertised as a horror film as it has three stars  from the previous year's DRACULA.

 An actor (who no one seems to like) is shot dead while filming a scene for the Hollywood film "The Death Kiss". His leading lady Marcia Lane (Adrienne Ames) comes under suspicion because they were once married. Her boyfriend Franklyn Drew (David Manners) is the "scenario" writer playing amateur detective. Other suspects are the film within a film's director (Edward Sloan), the cliched Jewish studio owner Grossmith (Alexander Carr who says "Oy! This is gonna cost me a fortune !" when informed of the murder), his prissy male secretary (Harold Minjir) and studio manager Joseph Steiner (Bela Lugosi). Two detectives (John Wray and Wade Boteler) investigate. When the filmed scene is shown to the crew the murderer pours acid on the film and the explosion and smoke are tinted! Drew teams up with a comical studio guard (Vince Barnett) to solve the murder.

There's a lot of clever dialogue but Lugosi (in WHITE ZOMBIE and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS the same year) is wasted in a small role and Manners' character is too cocky. It's the first film directed by Edward L.Marin who later made the 1938 version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL and many other low budget features.

THE DEATH KISS was one of the last films produced by the small Tiffany Pictures (1921-1932) before it went bankrupt. Their other productions included westerns, comedy shorts and the James Whale directed (and seldom seen) JOURNEY'S END.

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Early Talkie

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR-1929-This creaky old early talkie features (pre-Dracula) Bela Lugosi as an Inspector (who's not much better than Inspector Cousteau) who investigates a murder that took place during a séance. Conrad Nagel and Leila Hyams are the real stars. They play an engaged couple (he's rich, she's not and hides a secret about her mother). They and several others are all suspects of the murder of a police officer who was investigating another murder. A medium (Margret Wycherly, later James Cagney's mother in WHITE HEAT) may have been in cahoots with the officer in trying to catch the murderer. She's also the mother of the girl but no one knows it. 

This was Tod Browning's first sound film and like most of them around this time it's almost like a filmed play. One scene begins with  the actors waiting for their cue! Holmes Herbert is also in it.  Co-star Leila Hyams was later in Browning's FREAKS (and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS). She made her last film in 1936 and retired. She died in 1977.  

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Happy New Year!

ABRAHAM LINCOLN-1930-This was the first sound film made by the legendary DW Griffith but for years inferior copies missing some scenes had been the only ones in circulation. A few years ago Kino put out a version with the missing scenes restored but the soundtrack for these parts seems to be lost and are shown with subtitles.

Walter Huston plays Honest Abe. The prologue shows a horrifying slave ship (though the African slaves seem mostly to be made up white actors) where some slaves are thrown overboard. The episodic biography begins with his log cabin birth, rail splitting, courting of Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel) and his subsequent pining after her death, meeting and marrying Mary Todd (Kay Hammond), his debates with Stephen Douglas and his election to the presidency and of course The Civil War. It all happens at a fairly brisk clip with each period dealt with just a couple of scenes (although the War is more detailed). It ends with his assassination by fanatical John Wilkes Booth (Ian Keith). Jason Robards Sr. plays his friend Billy.

Like many early "talkies" however it suffers from a mediocre script, stilted acting and stage play like direction. In an earlier scene Huston is wearing a ridiculous amount of make-up but his performance when Lincoln becomes president is heartfelt. Stephan Vincent Benet is credited with the adaptation. Griffith made only one more film after this.

Thanks again to my pal Tony for finding this and thanks for reading!

Basil Before Sherlock

THE BISHOP MURDER CASE-1930-Basil Rathbone portrays detective Philo Vance in this early talkie. It involves several mysterious murders (one by bow and arrow). Vance uses a lot of analytical theorizing and there’s a comic know it all sergeant who helps out. I wonder if anyway remembered this when Rathbone was picked to first play Sherlock Holmes (in 1939) ?

Co-Star Leila Hyams was later in FREAKS and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS. She was a popular actress in the early ‘30’s but her screen career lasted only around ten years. Other co-star Roland Young later played “Topper” in a series of films and future director Delmer Daves has a small role.

Director Nick Grinde’s career began in the 1920’s. He was a fast competent worker but mostly his output remains undistinguished except for three of Boris Karloff’s “mad doctor” films. He uses several nice techniques in TBMC and keeps it from being more than just a filmed play as many early talkies were.

The Philo Vance character was created in 1926 by S.S. Van Dine (real name: Willard Huntington Vance) and was featured in 11 novels. TBMC was the fourth adaptation of a Dine novel to feature the Vance character. William Powell played him in the first three (and would play him once more in 1933) but this was the only time Rathbone portrayed him.

Warren William Paul Lukas Edmund Lowe and others would play him in the future but the last film
featuring the character would be in 1947.



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