Copyright 6 April 1934 by First Division Exchanges, Inc. Alliance Films. U.S. release through First Division. New York opening at the Globe: 15 March 1936. U.K. release through Wardour. London trade showing: January 1934. 76 minutes. Alternative U.S. title of a version cut to 63 minutes: The Living Dead.
SYNOPSIS: A crooked doctor collects life insurance by injecting accomplices with a life-suspending serum.
COMMENT: Thomas Bentley directed other movies besides his famous Dickens adaptations. If The Scotland Yard Mystery is a fair sample of his work, I don't think we have to worry that here is an unsung master of the cinema. As usual, the contemporary New York Times review is spot on. This movie is so awful that our Hollywood Classics audience could stand no more than the first half-hour and begged our projectionist to take it off.
As it happens, the title is a misnomer. There's no mystery. We're told about the crooked doctor and his scheme right from the outset. The only mystery is why old Gerald du Maurier takes 76 minutes to nail his man. A child could see that sneaky-faced George Curzon is the villain. Maybe du Maurier is too much the gentleman to judge a book by its cover, but who wants to see a movie about a gentlemanly Scotland Yard man - especially not the sort of audience likely to be attracted by a title like The Living Dead?
The rest of the players are as dull as the script, with Leslie Perrins making an especially wet hero. As for Bentley, he deserves some sort of a medal. Whatever small promises of drama and excitement in the hokey script, Bentley does his level best to suppress. It's hard to open a coffin without instilling some measure of suspense, but Bentley finds a way. Difficult to stage a homicide yet bore the audience silly - and insulting their intelligence as well - but good old Bentley is equal to the task. The players help too, with some assist from the cameraman and the set designer. It's a super-boring picture all right, but maybe that was the intention all along.
SYNOPSIS: A crooked doctor collects life insurance by injecting accomplices with a life-suspending serum.
COMMENT: Thomas Bentley directed other movies besides his famous Dickens adaptations. If The Scotland Yard Mystery is a fair sample of his work, I don't think we have to worry that here is an unsung master of the cinema. As usual, the contemporary New York Times review is spot on. This movie is so awful that our Hollywood Classics audience could stand no more than the first half-hour and begged our projectionist to take it off.
As it happens, the title is a misnomer. There's no mystery. We're told about the crooked doctor and his scheme right from the outset. The only mystery is why old Gerald du Maurier takes 76 minutes to nail his man. A child could see that sneaky-faced George Curzon is the villain. Maybe du Maurier is too much the gentleman to judge a book by its cover, but who wants to see a movie about a gentlemanly Scotland Yard man - especially not the sort of audience likely to be attracted by a title like The Living Dead?
The rest of the players are as dull as the script, with Leslie Perrins making an especially wet hero. As for Bentley, he deserves some sort of a medal. Whatever small promises of drama and excitement in the hokey script, Bentley does his level best to suppress. It's hard to open a coffin without instilling some measure of suspense, but Bentley finds a way. Difficult to stage a homicide yet bore the audience silly - and insulting their intelligence as well - but good old Bentley is equal to the task. The players help too, with some assist from the cameraman and the set designer. It's a super-boring picture all right, but maybe that was the intention all along.