Le spectre vert

Aka..."Green Ghost"

Of Course "Hollywood" and "The Movies" Would Capitulate Completely to the "Bible-Thumpers", Those Self-Imposed Over-Seers from "The Moral Majority", and Ironically Would Become...

"The Most Popular Art-Form of the 20th Century"

One has to Wonder and Report that "Bending Over Backwards" was a Painful "Lock-Step". Because "The Code" was Rigid, All-Encompassing and "Commanding".

The Code was Impossibly Restraining, and Uncompromising. Without the "Codes" Approval there was No Chance of Recouping Production-Cost, or God-Forbid, a "Profit"...No-Code, No-Distribution, No-Profit.

Probably Unconstitutional Under the 1st Amendment, it had a Stranglehold of Evil on the Art-Form for 25 Years and Hampered, if Not Surely "Castrated" the Ability to Freely Express and the Result was Producing and Exhibiting a "False-Front" of a Reality that Did-Not-Exist. Except in the Minds of Fascists, Control-Freaks, and Fundamentally a Figment of Christian-Idealism.

1929...It's the Year of "The Talkies" or as Ballyhooed..."All Talking-All Singing-All Dancing" and the Transitional "Growing Pains" were All Over All of the Movies in that Land-Mark Year.

Not Only Technically, but Presented Unanswered Questions...What Do Audiences Want"...What will They Tolerate?... It was Unexplored Territory for the Hybrid, so there was a Goodly Amount of Experimentation and Blind-Ambition.

This Story, an "Old-Dark-House" Type was Popular, Common, and a Path Well Traveled In-Print and On-Stage, was Made by "Money-Bags" MGM (More Stars than in the Heavens!), Directed by Celebrated Actor Lionel Barrymore, from a Story by Ben Hecht.

The Movie Looks and Sounds Better than Most of the "Crop" of Cinema in those Early-Days, a Well-Polished, Slick Presentation with an Over-Use of Sing-Along Camaraderie alongside Spooky Spiritualism, and Mystery-Thriller Tropes.

It's a "Talky-Talkie-Type", Typical of the Genre, a Few Surprises, and a "Cameo" by Boris Karloff (pre Frankenstein).

A bit Over-Long, but a Not-Bad Artifact Experience during a Period of Historical Significance, when Movies were Learning to Talk.

"The Code" was Fermenting, and Despite 'Prohibition" in America...Drinking was Celebrated, Embraced, and Promoted, Glorified, and Considered Good-Natured-Fun by "The People".

There is a Lot of That Here along with Other Ingredients that Make this...

Worth a Watch.

As in have patience AND determination with this one. Lord Montague (Roland Young) is walking through the London fog when someone comes up behind him and attempts to kill him by strangulation. He is found by a cop and brought to Scotland Yard where he learns that five of the members of his old WWI regiment have died by strangulation in the foggy streets of London that very day.

A plan is made by the Yard by which all of the living members of the regiment gather at Montague's estate - in uniform - under the guise of a reunion, in hope of smoking out a killer. Later that night a motive arrives. First, another member of the regiment, Mallory, is found dead in Montague's home. Next a mysterious woman bursts in on the gathering and passes out. Finally, Boris Karloff, as a lawyer, comes to tell the surviving member of the regiment that one member that they sentenced to death for cowardice, but escaped and made a fortune in Asia, has died and plans to punish them all by his will. Half his money he leaves to his daughter - the mysterious woman who burst in (Dorothy Sebastian). The other half is divided among those members of the regiment who survive to the next day when the will is probated. Thus they will have a motive to kill each other in hopes of getting the entire fortune available - one million pounds. That would be like thirty million dollars today. Creepy complications ensue.

The actual story, as it completely plays out, is very clever and morbid. The problem is in the execution. Everybody talks in that early talkie halting speech, sometimes launching into monologues that have nothing to do with what is going on and aren't that interesting to begin with. With some expert editing of dialogue and presentation this thing could have been cut down by at least 20 minutes without losing anything. Dorothy Sebastian surprised me as the exotic girl. For somebody with an almost insurmountable southern accent, she acquitted herself marvelously.

This film with its seances, and people all wondering which one was the murderer somewhat reminded me of "The 13th Chair" made the same year. Strangely enough, the most mysterious character in that film was Bela Lugosi where here it was Boris Karloff, a couple of years before their professional fates intertwine. Recommended for the film history buff.

This very early talkie mystery-thriller was directed by Lionel Barrymore, and is quite well acted and written if one has a taste for old-fashioned melodrama and barnstorming ham. A fascinating period piece, which, if one likes the period, is priceless.

With death stalking the darkness, members of a doomed regiment spend THE UNHOLY NIGHT in an old mansion seeking a murderer.

Fine atmospherics and good performances propel this creaky creeper from the very early days of talking pictures. The opening sequence ably depicts the oppressive emotional weight of an extreme London fog. The remainder of the film becomes an Old Dark House picture, with the cast claustrophobically caught in the clutches of a clever killer.

Owlish Roland Young does very well as the gentle nobleman whose grand home becomes a house of horrors. Appreciated for his comedic abilities, Young shows he's equally adept at more serious drama. Ernest Torrence--a very enjoyable character actor of the era whose career was cut short by an early death--plays the friendly doctor trying to deal with the brutal deaths. Lovely Natalie Moorhead portrays Young's sister, a woman fascinated by the supernatural. Dorothy Sebastian appears as a beautiful & mysterious lady from the East with a strange story to tell.

Blustery Major Lionel Belmore, and John Miljan as a badly scarred Major, are two of the 'Doomed Regiment.' Polly Moran has a few good moments as a frightened maid. Exotic Sojin is most effective as a Chinese mystic.

Movie mavens will easily recognize an unbilled Boris Karloff appearing as a sinister Turkish lawyer.

Director Lionel Barrymore makes good use of the new sound technology with a few well placed screams and some hearty singing from the officers of the regiment.

This is one of the earliest talkie whodunits; it still holds up quite well. It has a clever plot (sort of a precursor to Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None"), some impressive tracking shots, and a striking séance climax. Dorothy Sebastian is hot; Boris Karloff (in a thankfully, in this case, minor role) is ridiculously hammy; the rest of the cast is fine, if not terribly distinctive. **1/2 out of 4.