The Man Who Wouldn't Talk | |
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Directed by | David Burton |
Written by | |
Produced by | Sol M. Wurtzel |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Virgil Miller |
Edited by | Alex Troffey |
Music by | Samuel Kaylin |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 74 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk is a 1940 mystery film directed by David Burton and starring Lloyd Nolan, Jean Rogers, and Richard Clarke. It is a remake of the 1929 film The Valiant which had starred Paul Muni, [1] and was based on a play of the same name. It was Nolan's first film for Twentieth Century Fox, where he went on to be a successful star of B Movie mysteries such as the Michael Shayne series. Nolan's portrayal of the lead character was deliberately more subdued than Muni's had been, and the film was "opened up" with the addition of flashback scenes and other devices to make it less dialogue-based than the original.
A man shoots dead a business leader and confesses to the killing, but refuses to say anything more than providing the name Joe Monday, which is obviously an alias. His attorney joins forces with a woman claiming that she is his sister and that he is really a soldier reported missing during World War I. Still, the accused refuses to offer further information. He is tried for murder, with the case seemingly hanging on events from over twenty years earlier when the dead man and the accused had served in the same infantry company in France.
Paul Muni was an American stage and film actor from Chicago. He started his acting career in the Yiddish theater and during the 1930s, he was considered one of the most prestigious actors at the Warner Bros. studio and was given the rare privilege of choosing his own parts.
The following is an overview of 1936 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
The following is an overview of 1935 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. The cinema releases of 1935 were highly representative of the early Golden Age period of Hollywood. This period was punctuated by performances from Clark Gable, Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and the first teaming of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. A significant number of productions also originated in the UK film industry.
The following is an overview of 1933 in film, including significant events, a list of films released, and notable births and deaths.
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembered for his gangster roles in Quick Millions (1931) with Spencer Tracy, Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni, Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney, Invisible Stripes (1939) with Humphrey Bogart, and Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon; and as a dancer in Bolero (1934) with Carole Lombard and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Bogart.
Brett Halliday is the primary pen name of Davis Dresser, an American mystery and western writer. Halliday is best known for the long-lived series of Michael Shayne mysteries he wrote, and later commissioned others to continue. Dresser also wrote westerns, non-series mysteries, and romances under the names Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.
Jean Rogers was an American actress who starred in serial films in the 1930s and low–budget feature films in the 1940s as a leading lady. She is best remembered for playing Dale Arden in the science-fiction serials Flash Gordon (1936) and Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938).
Dressed to Kill is a 1941 American mystery film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Lloyd Nolan, Mary Beth Hughes and Sheila Ryan. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox, one of several films to feature the private detective Michael Shayne. The film is based on The Dead Take No Bows, a mystery novel by Richard Burke.
The Valiant is a 1929 American pre-Code drama film released by Fox Film Corporation in the Fox Movietone sound-on-film system on May 19, 1929. It is produced and directed by William K. Howard and stars Paul Muni, Marguerite Churchill, and John Mack Brown. Although described by at least one source as a silent film containing talking sequences, synchronized music, and sound effects, The Valiant has continuous dialogue and is a full "talkie" made without a corresponding silent version.
Roy Paul Harvey was an American character actor who appeared in at least 177 films.
Trial films is a subgenre of the legal/courtroom drama that encompasses films that are centered on a civil or criminal trial, typically a trial by jury.
Michael "Mike" Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday, a pseudonym of Davis Dresser. The character appeared in a series of seven films starring Lloyd Nolan for Twentieth Century Fox, five films from the low-budget Producers Releasing Corporation with Hugh Beaumont, a radio series under a variety of titles between 1944 and 1953, and later in 1960–1961 in a 32-episode NBC television series starring Richard Denning in the title role.
Marjorie Weaver was an American film actress of the 1930s through the early 1950s.
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk is a 1958 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring Anna Neagle, Anthony Quayle, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dora Bryan, John Le Mesurier and Lloyd Lamble. It was written by Edgar Lustgarten from a story by Stanley Jackson.
An American Dream is a 1966 American Technicolor drama film directed by Robert Gist and starring Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh. It was adapted from the 1965 Norman Mailer novel of the same name. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Song for "A Time for Love," music by Johnny Mandel and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.
Sleepers West is a 1941 American mystery drama film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Lloyd Nolan, Lynn Bari and Mary Beth Hughes. This second entry in 20th Century-Fox's Michael Shayne series was a remake of the 1934 Fox romantic drama Sleepers East from the novel Sleepers East (1933) by Frederick Nebel. The film Michael Shayne - Private Detective (1940) was the first in a series of 12 films. Lloyd Nolan starred as Shayne until the series was dropped by Twentieth Century-Fox and picked up by PRC. In the PRC series, Hugh Beaumont played Shayne.
The Man Who Wouldn't Die is a 1942 mystery film directed by Herbert I. Leeds, starring Lloyd Nolan and Marjorie Weaver. This movie is the 5th of a series of seven of the Michael Shayne movies produced by Twentieth Century Fox between 1940 and 1942.
Just Off Broadway is a 1942 Drama directed by Herbert I. Leeds, starring Lloyd Nolan and Marjorie Weaver. This is the sixth of a series of seven that Lloyd Nolan played Michael Shayne for Twentieth Century Fox films. Hugh Beaumont portrayed Shayne in five more films from Producers Releasing Corporation.
Pier 13 is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Lynn Bari, Lloyd Nolan and Joan Valerie. It is a remake of the 1932 film Me and My Gal with Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Lewis H. Creber and Richard Day.
Michael Shayne, Private Detective is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver and Joan Valerie. It is based on Brett Halliday's novel The Private Practice of Michael Shayne. It was the first in a series of Michael Shayne films starring Nolan.