Edgar Wallace Movies

The first screen version of Edgar Wallace's The Green Archer starred the Pathé company's popular team of Allene Ray and Walter Miller with Burr McIntosh -- of Way Down East fame (or infamy) -- as the mysterious millionaire Abel Bellamy, whose castle on the Hudson was brought over from England stone by stone. A neighbor, Valerie Howett (Ray), lets her curiosity get the best of her and begins an investigation into the mysterious goings-on at castle Bellamy. There are sliding panels, clutching hands, a strange creature in the cellar, and sundry other haunted house trappings but, happily, Jim Featherstone (Miller) of the Secret Service was present to save the damsel in distress and solve the mystery of the archer, a cloaked character dressed all in green whose appearance signified the death, or in Miss Ray's case, near death of everyone getting close to the castle's secrets. Building an entire replica of a Hudson Valley mansion at the Pathé studios on Long Island, director Spencer Gordon Bennet and veteran scribe Frank Leon Smith produced one of the era's most exciting serials and made a genre superstar of Allene Ray. One Earl R. Howell performed all the archery stunts and the serial also featured the veteran Frank Lackteen as a mysterious Italian. Universal remade The Green Archer in 1940 starring Victor Jory, Iris Meredith, and, as Bellamy, James Craven. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Clue of the New Pin is a vintage British mystery based on a story by Edgar Wallace about a "perfect murder." A nephew discovers the corpse of his wealthy uncle in a vault with a key laying beside the body as the only clue. A newspaper reporter helps clear the prime suspect and reveal the identity of the true killer. The Clue of the New Pin is a slow-paced, stagy early film effort which will mainly be of interest to film buffs because it contained one of the earliest appearances of Sir John Gielgud as Rex Trasmere. Benita Hume, who would later marry Ronald Coleman and become a star in her own right, is also interesting in her role as the murder suspect. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Dr. Bruce Smith (Basil Gill) refuses to violate his Hippocratic oath of secrecy by testifying in a divorce case. This earns him widespread public approval but ends up boomeranging on him when he learns that his son Roger's (Maurice Evans) fiancee Joan (Norah Murray) is pregnant with another man's baby. Since the girl revealed this information in the confidence of Dr. Smith's office, he is honor-bound not to tell anyone -- even if it may damage his son's future happiness. Ultimately, the girl solves the doctor's problem by revealing the truth herself. Should A Doctor Tell? is a curious cinematic contribution from Edgar Wallace, an author most closely associated with pulpish melodramas and mysteries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the first talkie adaptations of an Edgar Wallace story, The Yellow Mask is set in motion by the skullduggery of Chinese nobleman Li San (Warwick Ward). With the reluctant aid of heroine Mary Trayne (Douglas Secombe), Li San manages to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Fortunately, Mary's reporter boyfriend (William Shine) rescues the girl and, after a short sojourn in a torture chamber, settles the villain's hash. The trick now is to sneak the jewels back into the Tower without tipping the authorities. Four screenwriters collaborated on this unjustly forgotten comedy-melodrama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a stage play by Edgar Wallace, The Calendar is set amongst Britain's horsey set. Herbert Marshall and his then-wife Edna Best star as a wealthy racehorse owner and his pretty trainer. After divesting Marshall of his millions, his mistress Anne Grey leaves him in favor of a younger, handsomer man. The hapless hero is then betrayed by his butler, who gets his master drunk and convinces him to throw the next race. Banned from the track by a jury of jockey's (the film's highlight), Marshall is afforded the opportunity to redeem himself and to settle old scores with those who've wronged him, thereby paving the way for a climactic clinch with his true love, Best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Der Hexer was based on The Sorcerer, a detective story by workhorse British author Edgar Wallace. The original story was a thrilling, intricately plotted murder mystery involving a master criminal and a wily detective. According to contemporary reviews, however, the film version threw out much of the suspense and excitement in favor of dull dialogue passages. This is surprising, in that its director was the usually reliable Karl Lamac. Of the actors, only Karl Ettlinger, playing what amounted to the comedy-relief character, was singled out for any praise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This first talkie version of Conan Doyle's classic thriller The Hound of the Baskervilles stars Robert Rendel as master detective Sherlock Holmes. Though the story has been modernized, the basic sequence of events remains. After being apprised of the curse of the Baskervilles by Dr. Mortimer (Wilfrid Shure), Holmes makes the acquaintance of Sir Henry Baskerville (John Stuart), who is quite concerned over a stolen boot. And well he should be: That boot has been pilfered by a master criminal, who hopes to lead Sir Henry to his doom on the Grimpen Mire near Baskerville Hall. It is said that the stately country manor is haunted by the ghost of a gigantic hound, but Holmes suspects that the vicious animal is very much alive, and very much the part of a scheme to murder Sir Henry so that his assailant can lay claim to the Baskerville millions. Complicating Holmes's efforts to shield Sir Henry from harm is the curious behavior of the film's two heroines, Beryl Stapleton (Heather Angel) and Laura Lyons (Elizabeth Vaughan). Though Edgar Wallace's screenplay for Hound of the Baskervilles exists, the film itself has all but vanished; only fragments of the picture negative are known to survive, while the soundtrack has apparently been lost forever. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a master of disguises commits a series of crimes. He is so good, that no one knows what he really looks like. He even masquerades as a doctor and kills his own partner who has been under police protection because he agreed to lead him to the crook. Later it is revealed the chameleon like criminal was out for revenge against the partner as he killed the fellow's sister. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"How would you like to star opposite the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood?" Enticed by these words, brunette leading lady Fay Wray dyed her hair blonde and accepted the role of Ann Darrow in King Kong -- and stayed with the project even after learning that her "leading man" was a 50-foot ape. The film introduces us to flamboyant, foolhardy documentary filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who sails off to parts unknown to film his latest epic with leading lady Darrow in tow. Disembarking at Skull Island, they stumble on a ceremony in which the native dancers circle around a terrified-looking young girl, chanting, "Kong! Kong!" The chief (Noble Johnson) and witch doctor (Steve Clemente) spot Denham and company and order them to leave. But upon seeing Ann, the chief offers to buy the "golden woman" to serve as the "bride of Kong." Denham refuses, and he and the others beat a hasty retreat to their ship. Late that night, a party of native warriors sneak on board the ship and kidnap Ann. They strap her to a huge sacrificial altar just outside the gate, then summon Kong, who winds up saving Ann instead of devouring her. Kong is eventually taken back to New York, where he breaks loose on the night of his Broadway premiere, thinking that his beloved Ann is being hurt by the reporters' flash bulbs. Now at large in New York, Kong searches high and low for Ann (in another long-censored scene, he plucks a woman from her high-rise apartment, then drops her to her death when he realizes she isn't the girl he's looking for). After proving his devotion by wrecking an elevated train, Kong winds up at the top of the Empire State Building, facing off against a fleet of World War I fighter planes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This suspenseful, exciting mystery is based upon an Edgar Wallace story and centers upon the search for $1 million in buried loot. Only the original thief, Joe Valerie knows its location. He tells the crazed Austrian Dr. Cornelius about it. The good doc secretly schemes to get it for himself, but first he must evade a determined detective and the bogus psychic he has hired to help him out. The search leads the gumshoe to a spooky, seemingly haunted mansion. Three people die during the hunt and as they go, the mystic and the detective find themselves falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An Edgar Wallace yarn was the basis for the uncharacteristic Warner Bros. melodrama Return of the Terror. Hoping to escape prosecution for a series of poison murders, Dr. Redmayne (John Halliday) feigns insanity at his trial. The audience knows that Redmayne is innocent, so when he escapes from the asylum and a new rash of murders breaks out, the good doctor is instantly scratched off the suspect list. But this time the audience has been led up the garden path, as proven in the over-the-top finale. The presence of Mary Astor and Frank McHugh in the cast reassures the audience that this is indeed a Warner production and not something out of Universal or Monogram. Return of the Terror is a remake of The Terror (1928), the studio's first all-talking horror film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide