Bayard Veiller Movies

In this crime drama, a thieving employee sticks her stolen goods into the locker of a co-worker and causes all sorts of trouble. The stolen items are found in the locker of a store clerk who ends up imprisoned. The store owner's son knows that she is innocent, but he says nothing. The enraged clerk spends her three imprisoned years studying law and learns all about the ins and outs of legal loopholes. Upon her release, she begins using her new-found knowledge. She also tries to seduce the owner's son. Despite her vengeful efforts, the poor woman makes a lousy criminal and again is punished. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

On the eve of her marriage to Cary Grant, socialite Nancy Carroll is visited by her sadistic ex-lover Louis Calhern, who threatens to have his gangster pal Jack LaRue rub out Grant if Carroll doesn't give up her marriage plans. She responds by killing Calhern with a piece of statuary; a sympathetic housekeeper helps Carroll hide all evidence of the crime, but LaRue, whom Calhern had telephoned just before the killing, has heard all. While on her honeymoon ocean voyage with Grant, Carroll is accosted by John Halliday, a friend of Calhern's who suspect her of being responsible for Calhern's death. Halliday's cat-and-mouse game comes to an ugly head during a mock trial held by the partying passengers. Carroll confesses, but the passengers think she's just playacting. Later on, Grant is informed that Carroll's confession was for real. The couple are met at dockside by Halliday, who has produced LaRue as a witness to the crime. Grant strongarms LaRue into changing his testimony; with no evidence, the DA is compelled to free Carroll. Had this labyrinthine melodrama been made after the Production Code went into effect, not only would Nancy Carroll have paid for her crime, but Cary Grant would also have spent a few years in stir for witness tampering. A Woman Accused is based on one of those "committee" literary works (a la The President's Mystery and Naked Came the Stranger) wherein each chapter is written independently by a different author. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Barrymore plays a burglar and his brother Lionel Barrymore is the detective trying to catch him in this cleverly cast drama. An upscale thief who works under the name of Arsene Lupin is making the rounds of the homes of the wealthy and privileged, and Detective Guerchard (Lionel Barrymore) is determined to track him down. What he doesn't know is that the suave and sophisticated Duke of Charmerace (John Barrymore) is actually the man behind the robberies. Will Guerchard find out the thief's true identity before he can execute a daring theft from the Louvre Museum? Karen Morely co-stars as Sonia, the Duke's love interest. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The 1929 all-talkie adaptation of Bayard Veiller's stage play The Trial of Mary Dugan proved a worthy showcase for MGM-diva Norma Shearer. But Shearer was not conversant in German, thus Nora Gregor inherited the leading role in the German-language version, Mordprozess Mary Dugan. The personnel may have changed, but the plot remains the same: Libertine showgirl Mary Dugan is put on trial for murder, accused of killing her wealthy lover. Through a series of elaborate flashbacks, the truth about the events leading up to the killing slowly comes to the surface. It is also revealed that Mary's numerous romances with rich benefactors were undertaken so that she could finance the law-school education of her brother Jimmy -- who happens to be the attorney handling her defense. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paid was the third film version of the Bayard Veiller stage play Within the Law. Joan Crawford is cast as a shopgirl falsely arrested for stealing and sent to jail for three years. She swears vengeance on the store owner (Purnell Pratt), and to that end sets up a shady but legal racket wherein she and partner Marie Prevost act as "matchmakers" for lonely old men. It's all part of a plan to fleece the store owner by placing him in a compromising position, but Joan is sidetracked when she meets the owner's son (Kent Douglass. Marrying him in order to exact revenge on his father, Crawford falls in love with the young man and abandons her scheme. But once more, Crawford is wrongly accused of a crime, this time of murder. Paid ends happily for all concerned--especially MGM, which remade this reliable property (again!) under its old title Within the Law (1939), with Ruth Hussey in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks) directed this second film version of the Bayard Veiller play, which was his first collaboration with Bela Lugosi, whom he would launch to stardom two years later. Lugosi plays Inspector Delzante, who investigates a series of murders near a British mansion in Calcutta. The murders are pinned on a young runaway named Helen O'Neill (Leila Hyams) who is taken in by a well-intentioned fake Irish medium, Madame LaGrange (Margaret Wycherly). Delzante toys with the various characters in attendance and makes them reveal the real killer, and Lugosi is a lot of fun to watch. The film doesn't hold up to straight criticism very well -- the accents are particularly ludicrous, the Indian setting is totally unconvincing (and, in light of the short shrift it is given in the script, wholly unnecessary), and the acting is of the stiff, declamatory style so popular in the early days of sound. If one can accept these drawbacks and just enjoy the cast (Holmes Herbert, Conrad Nagel, even a young Joel McCrea), the film is quite entertaining. Those viewers whose familiarity with Lugosi is limited to his horror work and his sad decline under the tutelage of Edward D. Wood Jr. may be quite surprised at his screen presence here, which -- while undeniably hammy -- is nonetheless commanding and powerful. He doesn't really act so much as mesmerize. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Once again, Evelyn Brent plays a girl crook who eventually reforms in this entertaining melodrama, in which nearly every character is a crook. Gertie Jones (Brent) is posing as a maid solely to get her hands on the valuables of a wealthy dowager. Just as she has opened the safe, Jimmy Hartigan (Bruce Gordon), another thief, shows up. The pair agree to split the loot, but the police arrive. To save Gertie, Hartigan allows himself to be caught and later Gertie helps him escape from prison. While they are seeking refuge in a farmhouse, they are discovered by a justice of the peace who mistakes them for elopers. He marries them and they settle down in the city. They become acquainted with an elderly couple, and when a crook attempts to rob them, they decide to go straight and give the old couple their stolen loot to invest. It turns out that the old folks are crooks, too, and they abscond with the money. Kersey, a detective (Fred Kelsey), tracks down Hartigan and arrests him. Gertie poses as a detective herself, gets the money back from the old couple, and goes to save Hartigan. The train taking him back to prison wrecks and Kersey is trapped under a fallen beam. At Gertie's insistence, Hartigan rescues him, and Kersey allows his charge to go free. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

An epic, 13-reel costume drama produced by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan productions -- and it doesn't star his mistress, Marion Davies! Based on the novel by Stanley Weyman, this film was said to be the first to cost 1.5 million dollars to produce (a real fortune in those days). It starred newcomer John Charles Thomas, whose claim to fame was as a singer, not an actor. Luckily he had a number of seasoned players to back him up. Cardinal Richelieu (Robert B. Mantell) has just become Prime Minister under King Louis XIII of France (Ian MacLaren). Gil de Berault (Thomas) has gotten involved in a duel against Richelieu's orders, but the Prime Minister offers to save his life if he captures de Cocheforet (Otto Krueger), who is plotting against the king. Gil succeeds in his mission, but he falls in love with de Cocheforet's sister, Renee (Alma Reubens), so he lets him go and returns empty-handed. In the meantime Richelieu has been dismissed because of the machinations of the Duke of Orleans (William Powell, who often played villains in his early film days). Gil is able to prove that the duke is a traitor and Richelieu is restored to power. For Gil's service to the crown, he is given his freedom and allowed to marry Renee. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Lawyer Tom Gannell (Frank Elliot) is jealous of the attentions that college student Sorley (Dana Todd) pays his wife, Emma (Irene Hunt). Sorley funds his education by working on furnaces, and Gannell kills him while he is working in the cellar of Ralph Kirkwood (Al Roscoe). Kirkwood is accused of the murder and Gannell offers to defend him -- of course, with the intention of having him convicted. But Kirkwood's wife Elsie (May Allison) suspects that Gannell is the real killer and proves it. She has the police tap her phone and then invites Gannell to her home. Through psychological manipulation, she gets him to confess to the crime, and her husband is cleared. This was the first directing assignment for Bayard Veiller, who had earned a solid reputation as a writer of mystery and drama scenarios. The plot was from a Saturday Evening Post story by Maxwell Smith. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide