The Sign of the Claw

Villainous Lee Shumway and his gang are planning to rob a bank, using clerk Joseph Bennett as their inside man. Bennett is the brother of Ethel Shannon, who is very good friends with beat cop Edward Hearn and his police dog, Peter the Great.

This being a States Rights movie, it is cheaply produced, with most of the hour of the movie shot on under-decorated interiors. There is a big chase scene towards the end. Peter is a handsome German shepherd, adept at baring his teeth, attacking the bad guys, and looking good running in long shots. Director B. Reeves Eason was never distinguished, but he was pretty good as an assistant director of action sequences. There's a lot of cutting to make up the sequence where Peter is subduing all the bad guys himself.

Otherwise, it's not particularly interesting. Certainly, Hearn and Shumway were competent if minor players who sustained long careers, albeit in frequently bit parts, but this one looks like everyone was more interested in having this come in on time and under budget, than in getting the most out of the mediocre. Ray June handles the camera competently. He was also called upon to shoot movies with Rin-Tin_Tin and Strongheart about this time, which was probably why he was hired. However, he would soon head over to MGM where he spent much of his career. He seems not to have been called on to light Asta nor Lassie.

One of the little ironies that beset a DVD collector's life is the fact that so many super-famous, super-expensive, award-winning movies are not available in any form at any price, while on the other hand, scads of never-heard-of, Poverty-Row clinkers are not only readily obtainable but often in pristine form.

Such a completely expendable little movie is "The Sign of the Claw." Produced on a shoe-string with a nothing cast, a totally uninvolving screenplay and a talentless director, this minor "B" entry has—aside from its scant action climax—absolutely nothing to recommend it except the fact that it exists in such an admirable condition.

It's tinted, of course. A few negligible frames are missing at the beginning of the front credits, plus one or two of the end credits. It has a few unimportant splices and a bit of print damage in 30 of its 5,925 feet. Otherwise it's in absolutely immaculate condition. And still as bright as a penny. No fading whatsoever. And the tints as colorful and beautifully toned as when Ray June supervised release prints through the laboratory way back in 1926.

Although Breezy Eason was often highly regarded as an action specialist for other people's films, his own movies are as flat-footed as can be. "The Sign of the Claw" is a typical Breezy letdown.