| As the Devil Commands | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Roy William Neill |
| Screenplay by | Jo Swerling |
| Story by | Keene Thompson |
| Starring | Alan Dinehart Mae Clarke Neil Hamilton |
| Cinematography | Joseph August |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
As the Devil Commands is a 1932 American pre-Code film written by Jo Swerling from a story by Keene Thompson. It is directed by Roy William Neill and stars Alan Dinehart, Mae Clarke and Neil Hamilton.
When John Duncan becomes ill, he moves in with his cousin, Robert Waldo, who is an attorney. As his illness worsens, his doctor, David Graham, gives him the bad news that it is terminal. When Duncan decides to split his estate between Waldo and Graham, Waldo hatches a plot which he feels will allow him to inherit the entire fortune. The first step involves convincing Duncan to leave his whole fortune to Graham in his will. With Graham now having a perfect motive for murder, Waldo plans to kill Duncan and frame Graham.
As Christmas approaches, Duncan's illness has progressed to the point where he is now a totally helpless invalid. Suffering, Duncan begs Graham to end his suffering, but Graham refuses. Waldo connives Graham to go to a party, getting him out of the house. He also hires Wilfred Morgan, a tramp, to go to the party, to make sure that Graham does not return too early. However, Morgan gets drunk and does not leave the mansion. Thinking that he is alone with Duncan, he administers the necessary overdose to kill Duncan. Unbeknownst to him, Morgan wakes up long enough to witness the murder.
After Duncan's death, Graham is tried for the murder. He is ineptly defended by Waldo, who is hoping for a conviction and a death sentence, which if it happens, he will be the sole heir to Duncan's fortune. However, while Graham is convicted, he is sentenced to life in prison, rather than death. This foils Waldo's plans, since as long as Graham is alive, Waldo cannot inherit. So Waldo forges a fake suicide note for Duncan, which he presents after "finding" it amongst Duncan's effects, thus obtaining Graham's exoneration and release.
He plans to kill Graham and make it look like an accident, but a hiccup occurs when Morgan resurfaces and blackmails Waldo with his eyewitness testimony of Duncan's murder. Needing to get rid of the tramp, so he runs him down with his car. Thinking Morgan is dead, he goes back to the mansion, where he tricks Graham into going into the wine cellar, where Waldo has lit numerous candles, which will quickly use up all the oxygen in the room, asphyxiating Graham. However, Morgan is not dead, just mortally injured. He manages to make his way to Jane's house, who is Graham's assistant. Before dying he tells her that it was Waldo who ran him over, as well as being the one to give Duncan his fatal overdose. She calls the police, then grabs her gun and heads over to the mansion. She tries to get Waldo to tell her where Graham is, but he refuses. They struggle and Jane shoots him. Then the police arrive, and they discover Graham in time to save him.
The film had the working title of Acquitted, which was changed shortly before its release in December 1932, to As the Devil Commands. [2]
The Missoulian gave it a good review, calling it a "powerful dramatic story". [3] The Austin American gave the film a mostly positive review, applauding the work of Dinehart, Hamilton, and Clarke, although they felt the romantic elements of the picture were a bit thin. [4]
Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell was a British medical missionary to Newfoundland, who wrote books on his work and other topics.
Wilfred Van Norman Lucas was a Canadian American stage actor who found success in film as an actor, director, and screenwriter.
James Neil Hamilton was an American stage, film and television actor, best remembered for his role as Commissioner Gordon on the Batman TV series of the 1960s, having first played a character by that name in 1928's Three Weekends. During his motion picture career, which spanned more than a half century, Hamilton performed in over 260 productions in the silent and sound eras.
Annie Mae Aquash was a First Nations activist and Mi'kmaq tribal member from Nova Scotia, Canada. Aquash moved to Boston in the 1960s and joined other First Nations and Indigenous Americans focused on education and resistance, and police brutality against urban Indigenous peoples. She was part of the American Indian Movement, participated in several occupations, and participated in the 1973 Wounded Knee incident at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, United States.
Mae Clarke was an American actress. She is widely remembered for playing Henry Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth, who is chased by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, and for being on the receiving end of James Cagney's halved grapefruit in The Public Enemy. Both films were released in 1931.
Arthur Hoyt was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 275 films in his 34-year film career, about a third of them silent films.
The Breaking Point is a 1950 American film noir crime drama directed by Michael Curtiz and the second film adaptation of the 1937 Ernest Hemingway novel To Have and Have Not.. It stars John Garfield in his penultimate film role and Patricia Neal. His very last film was He Ran All the Way Home.
Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers is a 1987 animated comedy horror made-for-television film produced by Hanna-Barbera as part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series. The two-hour film aired in syndication. It is the first full-length film in the Scooby-Doo franchise.
Lily C.A.T. is a 1987 science fiction/horror anime film written and directed by Hisayuki Toriumi, featuring monster designs from Yoshitaka Amano and character designs from Yasuomi Umetsu. An English version of the film was produced by Carl Macek and distributed by Streamline Pictures. After the closing of Streamline Pictures, the distribution rights were obtained by Discotek Media. The film is heavily inspired by Ridley Scott's Alien and by John Carpenter's The Thing.
Wallace Archibald MacDonald was a Canadian silent film actor and film producer.
Night World is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film featuring Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, and Boris Karloff. The supporting cast includes George Raft and Hedda Hopper.
Up the River is a 1938 American prison comedy film directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Preston Foster and Arthur Treacher and featuring Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. The film is a remake of a 1930 film with the same name directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart in the roles subsequently played by Foster and Tony Martin. The remake changed the sport the plot revolves around from baseball to football.
Mason Alan Dinehart Sr. was an American actor, director, writer, and stage manager.
The Penguin Pool Murder is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy/mystery film starring Edna May Oliver as Hildegarde Withers, a witness in a murder case at the New York Aquarium, with James Gleason as the police inspector in charge of the case, who investigates with her unwanted help, and Robert Armstrong as an attorney representing Mae Clarke, the wife of the victim. Oliver's appearance was the first film appearance of the character of Hildegarde Withers, the schoolteacher and sleuth based on the character from the 1931 novel The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer. It is the first in a trilogy including Murder on the Blackboard, and Murder on a Honeymoon, in which Oliver and Gleason team up for the lead roles.
A Study in Scarlet is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery thriller film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes and Anna May Wong as Mrs. Pyke. The title is taken from Arthur Conan Doyle's 1887 novel of the same name, the first in the Holmes series, but the screenplay by Robert Florey was original.
The Rat is a 1925 British silent film drama, directed by Graham Cutts and starring Ivor Novello, Mae Marsh and Isabel Jeans. The film is based on the 1924 play of the same title written by Novello and Constance Collier, set in the Parisian criminal underworld. The film's louche settings and melodramatic storyline proved popular with audiences, and its success spawned two sequels, The Triumph of the Rat (1926) and The Return of the Rat (1929).
Hale Rice Hamilton was an American actor.
Night Was Our Friend is a 1951 British drama film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Elizabeth Sellars, Michael Gough and Ronald Howard. The title references a line from Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid.
The Final Edition is a 1932 American crime drama film directed by Howard Higgin and starring Pat O'Brien, Mae Clark and Morgan Wallace. Made by Columbia Pictures, it is based on a story by Roy Chanslor.