Le spectre vert

I screened a partial print of 'The Green Ghost' with several reels missing. I had great difficulty following the action, down to several reasons: (1) the missing reels; (2) the deterioration of the surviving reels; (3) the strong accents of several cast members; (4) the extremely bad sound recording of the French dialogue; (5) the fact that my French is not of the best.

Apparently a roster of people who knew each other years ago are now being murdered, one at a time, by a mysterious killer known only as the Green Ghost. (Do ghosts come in colours? I thought they were all transparent.) Naturally, all the survivors decide to get together in a creepy old house ... thus making it easier for the killer to complete the set. Once they've reunited in a conveniently isolated location, they realise that the murderer is someone among their group.

The Oriental silent-film actor Sojin is excellent as Li Han, a fakir, but shows some difficulty here with his accent ... perhaps one reason why his career withered in the talkies.

It would be unfair of me to criticise this movie, since I saw and understood so little of it, but this hoary old plot had moss growing on it even in 1930, so I doubt that the movie would be very good even if I located a complete pristine print. It's not high on my 'to find' list.