1h 27min | Drama, Horror, Mystery | 4 February 1935
Director: Stuart Walker
Stars: Claude Rains, Douglass Montgomery, Heather Angel, David Manners.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026758/
Watched online; mediocre print.
Only sought this out because in a few days I'll be going to see a high school performance of the Musical adaptation of this story (my friend's son is in the cast). So I thought I should know the story.
One reason I like old movies is that I grew up with them, so the faces are familiar, and therefore it's easier to keep track of new characters. (It's why, in these posts, I always refer to the characters by the actor's names, although that is absolutely the wrong practice.) And back then the casting was usually With type (not against it), so it's even easier to discover who's good/bad.
Here, I don't know the actors playing Drood and Landless, and they look verrrrrry similar to me. And oh, looky, the actors have the same initials too. Gggh.
Here's my understanding (almost all possible spoilers are here):
- Jasper (called Jack = John) is uncle to Drood (Ned = Edwin)
- Jasper is obsessed with Rosa (last name Bud. Really? Attempted humor?)
- Drood and Rosa are semi-betrothed from childhood, but have no chemistry, feel like siblings
- Rosa's guardian gives her mother's ring to Drood for their wedding
- Neville Landless (do all Dickens' names telegraph the character? Was there ever a Lord and Lady Landless?) & sister arrive; he has a terrible temper from their abusive childhood (a bit early for Freud, but there it is)
- Rosa is smitten by Landless; (sister Landless looks smitten with Rosa, but that goes nowhere; she's not even around later when brother is in trouble)
- Jasper witnesses Rosa flirting with Landless, Jasper becomes jealous
- Jasper witnesses Landless' temper, and it was directed at Drood
- Jasper tells the tale to the best gossips, and the whole town knows some version of the confrontation (Landless/Drood), usually exaggerated far beyond reality
- Jasper sees Drood & Rosa kiss, not understanding they finally ended their "romance"
- Jasper visits the cryptkeeper, learns they cover bodies with lye, and makes a wax impression of one of his keys
- On a dark and stormy night, Landless and Drood finally make peace, but the next morning Drood is missing, and Landless is late returning home
- Eventually Landless is accused of killing Drood, so Landless runs away.
- Landless disguises himself as an old man (where did he get wig/makeup/knowledge?) and comes back to town, asking lots of questions. He finds the wax impression of the key.
- Finally Jasper's drug consumption pays off to the plot, when he talks while under the influence, and his pusher pieces together that he likely killed Drood
- Landless manages to meet and question the pusher
- The pusher ends up dead in Jasper's abode; a street urchin runs around accusing Jasper of killing the pusher; Landless in disguise interviews him, which leads to ...
- Landless meets with the cryptkeeper, finds the crypt that Jasper was interested in, digs up the fresh mortar, and sure enough some fresh bones remain (the lye having done most of its job), but Rosa's mother's ring is there to identify the body
- Jasper, confronted with his crime (the cryptkeeper accuses him), jumps from the balcony of the church and dies
- Landless & Rosa marry. The End.
Has Landless been cured of the PTSD from his childhood, or is Rosa in for a tortured life? And what happened to his sister? (Maybe she appeared in the wedding scene and I didn't recognize her.)
I watched this late in the day with the sound low, and was consumed with something else for at least the first 2 attempts. I finally got through it, and then had to watch it in note-taking mode to get this much straight.
Released in 1935, this conforms to the freshly (beginning 7'1934) enforced Production Code (censorship) by not showing Jasper doing the deed (although he sort of acts it out in his drugged-dream), but does NOT conform by revealing that lye dissolves bodies. (Thou shalt not explain how to commit crimes.)
I'm giving this a 5 to wave me off of watching it again. Maybe if I weren't in Musicals mode I'd be more receptive. But today I did NOT enjoy it, because it took too much effort to follow. (At least give one of the guys a mustache, OK? Uggggh.)
Universal, dir. Walker; 5
