The Crimson Circle

The Crimson Circle strikes again! Another wealthy man has been ordered to pay a large sum, defied the order, and been struck down! All of London is terrified! Scotland Yard is helpless!

It's the third movie version of Edgar Wallace's 1922 thriller, with the viewpoint character shifting between Inspector Alfred Drayton (who finds himself unable to make any advance on the case), and Hugh Wakefield, a well connected young man who is in love with June Duprez. But she is arrested as an accomplice in one of the Crimson Circle's murders, and then easily escapes the pokey to join Wakefield. The Crimson Circle, she explains, has connections even in Scotland Yard!

Yoicks. The solution to the entire matter is melodramatic -- as you might expect -- and rather feather-weighted in offering decent clues for the audience to have a fair chance of solving this mystery and getting the young lovers together. But it is exciting. With Niall McGinniss and Noah Beery.

Edgar Wallace wrote over 200 thrillers and so it is little surprise that many elements are used time and again.We have a gang terrorising London,with a mysterious leader known to nobody.Anyone who refuses their demands for payment of a substantial sum is murdered, often in unusual circumstances.However the point is that if you have seen many of the films of his books,then the gang leader stands out a mile.This film was clearly a quota quickie made for Universal films by Reginald Denham who doubled as a film and theatre director in the 30s.He keeps the action moving along and has used his presumably minuscule budget well.Alfred Drayton is unusually cast as the Scotland Yard detective.However this film is not nearly as good as "The Frog" starring Gordon Harker.