Hotel Splendide (1932)

Produced for an economical (even in 1932) £4000, Hotel Splendide stars comedian Jerry Verno as Jerry Mason, an impecunious nobody who inherits the seaside resort of the title. He immediately quits his dead end job, tells his boss off, and travels to Speymouth -- where he finds that his vision of his inheritance does not quite match reality. Although initially disappointed, he decides he will try to make a go of it and sets about making plans on how to bolster the hotel's (and his) fortunes. Along the way he discovers a small package that, unbeknownst to him, contains the famous Dysart Pearls, stolen and buried there before the hotel was built. Eventually the packet falls into the possession of Gentleman Charlie, a former convict who is posing as a new guest at the Splendide. Several complications ensue involving a rival gangster, a detective, a series of mistaken identities and a safe (the combination of which Mason has forgotten) before all ends well and Mason finds himself richer by £10,000. The first of director Michael Powell's features for Gaumont-British, Splendide marked the first time Powell appeared as an actor in a movie which he also directed. In addition, it features one of the earliest cinematic uses of "Funeral March of the Marionettes," better known as the theme music for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi