Seven Keys to Baldpate (1925 film)

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Seven Keys to Baldpate
Seven Keys to Baldpate - WILLIAM HALOWELL MAGEE (DOUGLAS MacLEAN) ARRIVES AT MYSTERIOUS BALDPATE.jpg
Producer-star Douglas MacLean
in Seven Keys to Baldpate
Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer
Written by Wade Boteler (scenario)
Frank Griffin (scenario)
Based on Seven Keys to Baldpate
by Earl Derr Biggers (1913 novel) and George M. Cohan (1913 play)
Produced by Adolph Zukor
Jesse Lasky
Douglas MacLean
StarringDouglas MacLean
Cinematography Jack MacKenzie
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • October 19, 1925 (1925-10-19)
Running time
66 minutes; 7 reels (6,648 feet)
CountryUnited States
Language Silent (English intertitles)

Seven Keys to Baldpate is a lost 1925 American silent comedy mystery film based on the 1913 mystery novel by Earl Derr Biggers and 1913 play by George M. Cohan. Previously made in Australia in 1916 [1] and by Paramount in 1917, this version was produced by, and starred, Douglas MacLean and was directed by Fred C. Newmeyer (who later directed Our Gang shorts). Out of seven film adaptations of the story made between 1916 and 1983, this version is the only one that is now considered lost. [2] [3] [4] The story was remade again later in 1929, 1935, 1946 (TV movie), and 1947. It was also remade in 1983 under the title House of the Long Shadows , featuring John Carradine, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee. [5]

Contents

Plot

As described in a film magazine review:

William Magee, author, returns from Europe and declares that, instead of writing while he was there, he was buying presents for Mary Norton, daughter of his publisher, to whom he is engaged. Norton, who faces ruin if William does not produce another novel on short order, forbids his daughter’s marriage until the book is written. William agrees to write, and Bentley offers him the use of Baldpate Inn, a summer resort closed for the season and therefore quiet. The caretakers tell William that the key they give him is the only one in existence that will open the inn. However, while he is writing, Bland unlocks the door, enters, and hides a large sum of money in the inn safe. Then in rapid succession the members of a gang of crooks looking for the money enter. William, thinking that the people are in a conspiracy to interrupt him, ignores the warning of Mary that he is in danger. The sheriff arrives to arrest all present at the inn, but William eludes him. The caretakers return and William tells them he has finished the book. Only then is it learned that all of the action is really in the book, and has not happened in reality. Mary arrives and is told by William that the novel is finished and they are to be married the next day. [6]

Cast

Critical reception

In The New York Times , Mordaunt Hall wrote, "Douglas MacLean, who relies a great deal upon his eyes and his teeth in acting, is only moderately amusing in the film conception of Seven Keys to Baldpate, which is at the Rivoli this week. This does not seem to be as good a vehicle for him as The Yankee Consul and other productions in which he has figured. There are long stretches without much in the way of genuine fun, and Mr. MacLean is rather stiff and his clothes are much too well pressed. He looks as if he had come to life from a man's fashion advertisement, without a characterizing crease." [7]

Critic Troy Howarth comments "The emphasis... is as much on comedy as it is on chills and suspense, and it seems likely that most viewers were familiar with the story's convoluted plot by this time". [8]

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<i>Seven Keys to Baldpate</i> (1917 film) 1917 American film

Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1917 American silent mystery/thriller film produced by George M. Cohan and distributed by Artcraft Pictures, an affiliate of Paramount. The film is based on Cohan's 1913 play of the 1913 novel by Earl Derr Biggers. Cohan himself stars in this silent version along with Anna Q. Nilsson and Hedda Hopper, billed under her real name Elda Furry. One version of the play preceded this movie in 1916 and numerous versions followed in the succeeding decades such as the early RKO talkie starring Richard Dix.

<i>Seven Keys to Baldpate</i> (1929 film) 1929 film by Reginald Barker

Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1929 American pre-Code sound film produced and distributed through RKO Pictures. It was the first sound film based on the 1913 Earl Derr Biggers novel/ George M. Cohan play Seven Keys to Baldpate, following three different silent film versions. The film had its premiere on Christmas Day, 1929 in New York City, and its official release was the following month.

Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1913 play by George M. Cohan based on a novel by Earl Derr Biggers. The dramatization was one of Cohan's most innovative plays. It baffled some audiences and critics but became a hit, running for nearly a year in New York, another year in Chicago and receiving later revivals; Cohan starred in the 1935 revival. Cohan adapted it as a film in 1917, and it was adapted for film six more times, and later for TV and radio. The play "mixes all the formulaic melodrama of the era with a satirical [farcical] send-up of just those melodramatic stereotypes."

<i>Go and Get It</i> 1920 film

Go and Get It is a 1920 American silent comedy-drama mystery film directed by Marshall Neilan and Henry Roberts Symonds and written by Marion Fairfax. The film stars Pat O'Malley, Wesley Barry, Noah Beery Sr. and Agnes Ayres. The cinematographer was David Kesson. The film was released on July 18, 1920 by First National Exhibitors' Circuit.

<i>The Phantom Melody</i> 1920 film by Douglas Gerrard

The Phantom Melody is a 1920 American silent drama film directed by Douglas Gerrard, and starring Monroe Salisbury, Henry A. Barrows, Ray Gallagher, Charles West and Jean Calhoun. The film was released by Universal Film Manufacturing Company on January 27, 1920. The film's "premature burial" plotline tilts it in the direction of being a horror film as well as a melodrama. Director Gerrard emigrated to Hollywood from Ireland in 1913 to become an actor, but quickly gravitated to film directing in 1916 with his The Price of Victory, but gave up directing soon after filming The Phantom Melody.

References

  1. "Amusements". Daily Advertiser. May 31, 1916.
  2. The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1921-30 published by The American Film Institute, c.1971
  3. Progressive Silent Film List: Seven Keys to Baldpate at silentera.com
  4. Seven Keys to Baldpate at Arne Andersen's Lost Film Files: Paramount Pictures - 1925
  5. Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 292. ISBN   978-1936168-68-2.
  6. "New Pictures: Seven Keys to Baldpate", Exhibitors Herald, Chicago, Illinois: Exhibitors Herald Company, 23 (3): 58, October 10, 1925, retrieved October 9, 2022PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. May 6, 2022.
  8. Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 292. ISBN   978-1936168-68-2.