Rupert Julian was a New Zealand cinema actor, director, writer and producer. During his career, Julian directed 60 films and acted in over 90 films. He is best remembered for directing Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925). He also directed The Cat Creeps (1930), a sound remake of The Cat and the Canary (1927), which is now considered a lost film, with only two minutes of footage remaining in the 1932 Universal comedy short film Boo!.
Guadalupe Natalia Tovar Sullivan, known professionally as Lupita Tovar, was a Mexican-American actress best known for her starring role in the 1931 Spanish-language version of Drácula, filmed in Los Angeles by Universal Pictures at night using the same sets as the Bela Lugosi version, but with a different cast and director. She also starred in the 1932 film Santa, one of the first Mexican sound films, and one of the first commercial Spanish-language sound films. At the time of her death, she was the oldest living actress and one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema and from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
The Cat and the Canary is a 1922 stage play by John Willard, adapted at least four times into feature films, in 1927, 1930, 1939, and again in 1979. The original stage play opened on Broadway February 7, 1922.
The Cat and the Canary is a 1927 American silent comedy horror film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. An adaptation of John Willard's 1922 black-comedy play of the same name, the film stars Laura La Plante as Annabelle West, Forrest Stanley as Charlie Wilder, and Creighton Hale as Paul Jones. The plot revolves around the death of Cyrus West, who is Annabelle, Charlie, and Paul's uncle, and the reading of his will twenty years later. Annabelle inherits her uncle's fortune, but when she and her family spend the night in his haunted mansion, they are stalked by a mysterious figure. Meanwhile, a lunatic mainly known as the Cat escapes from an asylum and hides in the mansion.
The Last Warning is a 1928 sound part-talkie American mystery film directed by Paul Leni, and starring Laura La Plante, Montagu Love, and Margaret Livingston. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The film apparently only survives in a cut-down edited silent version which was made for theatres who had not yet converted to sound. The soundtrack for the sound version, which was also released on sound-on-disc format, survives in private hands on Vitaphone type discs.
Boo! is a 1932 American Pre-Code comedy short film by Universal Pictures, directed and written by Albert DeMond. Boo! contains clips of horror films Nosferatu (1922), The Cat Creeps (1930), and Frankenstein (1931), mocking them thoroughly.
The Cat and the Canary is a 1939 American southern gothic horror comedy film directed by Elliott Nugent starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. It is a remake of the 1927 silent film The Cat and the Canary, which was based on the 1922 play of the same name by John Willard.
La Voluntad del Muerto is a Spanish-language version of The Cat Creeps (1930), both of which are now considered to be lost films.
Enrique Tovar Ávalos was a Mexican film director notable for remaking several Universal Horror films into Spanish language versions. These include La Voluntad del muerto and Drácula.
Millie is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by John Francis Dillon from a screenplay by Charles Kenyon and Ralph Morgan, based on a novel of the same name by Donald Henderson Clarke. The film was an independent production by Charles R. Rogers, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, after their acquisition of Pathé Exchange. It stars Helen Twelvetrees in one of her best roles, with a supporting cast that includes Lilyan Tashman, James Hall, Joan Blondell, John Halliday and Anita Louise.
Manuel Granada was an Argentine actor who appeared in American, Spanish, Argentine and Mexican films. For the first half of his career, he worked under the names Paul Ellis and Manuel Granado.
The Secret of the Blue Room is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Kurt Neumann and starring Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Paul Lukas, and Edward Arnold. A remake of the German film Geheimnis des blauen Zimmers (1932), it concerns a group of wealthy people who stay at a European mansion that features a blue room that is said to be cursed, as everyone who has stayed there has died shortly after. Three people suggest a wager that each can survive a night in the blue room.
The Thirteenth Hour is a 1927 American silent mystery film produced and distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer and directed by Chester Franklin. The film stars Lionel Barrymore in a role where, as noted criminologist Professor Leroy, he dons a weird series of disguises to hide a dark secret. This was the first film where Barrymore was cast opposite talented dogs, and the first where he was cast as a serial killer.
The Trial of Mary Dugan is a 1929 American pre-Code film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Norma Shearer. The film is based on the 1927 Broadway stage play The Trial of Mary Dugan by Bayard Veiller, who also directed the film. On stage the play had starred Ann Harding, who would come to Hollywood a few years later at the beginning of talkies. This was Veiller's first and only sound film directorial effort as he had directed several silent films before 1922. The play was also published as a novel authored by William Almon Wolff, published in 1928. The 1941 film of the same name is an MGM remake.
Gladys Lehman was a prolific American screenwriter who had a long career in Hollywood.
The Cat Creeps is a 1946 American film directed by Erle C. Kenton and starring Noah Beery, Jr., Lois Collier, and Paul Kelly. It follows a journalist and his photographer who attempt to research an unsolved death and locate a missing fortune, with the help of a black cat that appears to be possessed by the spirit of a dead woman.
Secret of the Chateau is a 1934 American mystery film directed by Richard Thorpe. The film stars Claire Dodd, Alice White, Osgood Perkins, Jack La Rue, George E. Stone and Clark Williams. On its release, reviews from Variety, The Film Daily and The Motion Picture Herald all commented that the film was a typical mystery film. On retrospective reviews, the book Universal Horrors stated the film had little to distinguish itself from others mystery films of the 1930s and 1940s and has justly been forgotten.
Chinatown Squad is a 1935 American mystery film directed by Murray Roth, written by Dore Schary and Ben Ryan starring Lyle Talbot, Valerie Hobson, Hugh O'Connell, and Andy Devine, and featuring Leslie Fenton and Bradley Page. The film was released on May 31, 1935, by Universal Pictures.
The Leopard Lady is a 1928 American silent horror film directed by Rupert Julian, written by Beulah Marie Dix, and starring Jacqueline Logan, Alan Hale and Robert Armstrong. The film, based on a play by Edward Childs Carpenter, is about a female animal trainer named Paula who goes undercover at a circus that has been beset by a number of unexplained horrific murders. A gorilla trained to kill people turns out to be the culprit, the simian being played by Charles Gemora. The cast boasted several name stars who went on to long acting careers, including Alan Hale, Robert Armstrong, and Richard Alexander. Rupert Julian directed this film late in his fading career, following it up with his final picture The Cat Creeps' (1930), another lost film.
George Robinson (1890-1958) was an American cinematographer from Los Angeles.
