The Return of Peter Grimm | |
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Directed by | George Nicholls, Jr. Doran Cox (assistant) |
Written by | Francis Edward Faragoh |
Based on | The Return of Peter Grimm, a play by David Belasco New York, 1911 |
Produced by | Kenneth Macgowan |
Starring | Lionel Barrymore Helen Mack Edward Ellis Donald Meek |
Cinematography | Lucien Andriot |
Edited by | Arthur Schmidt |
Music by | Alberto Colombo |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | 84 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Return of Peter Grimm is a 1935 American drama film directed George Nicholls, Jr. from a screenplay by Francis Edward Faragoh based upon the 1911 Broadway play of the same name by David Belasco. [2] Produced by Kenneth Macgowan and released by RKO Radio Pictures on September 13, 1935, it stars Lionel Barrymore, Helen Mack, Edward Ellis, and Donald Meek. [3]
Previously filmed by Fox Film Corporation in 1926 as a silent film, The Return of Peter Grimm .
A business owner disbelieves in the afterlife, until he dies and returns as a ghost. When he learns that his intended heir plans to sell the business, the ghost tries to sabotage the heir's arranged marriage.
The owner of a thriving, generations-old nursery business, Peter Grimm is determined to marry off Catherine, an orphan he has raised to young womanhood, to his nephew Frederik. Catherine, who does not love Frederik, reluctantly agrees to marry him just to please her benefactor. Meanwhile, James, Grimm's secretary, is secretly in love with Catherine.
Grimm scoffs at his doctor and old friend, Andrew Macpherson, for his belief in the afterlife and seances, but after he dies, is chagrined to find his friend is right. As a ghost, he is disgusted when he finds his nephew is planning to sell the business to a despised longtime rival. Grimm tries to prevent the marriage he arranged.
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul (1931), and is known to modern audiences for the role of villainous Mr. Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.
Ebenezer Scrooge is a fictional character and the protagonist of Charles Dickens's 1843 short novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novella, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. The tale of his redemption by three spirits has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday in the English-speaking world.
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Barrymore was a stage, screen and radio actress whose career spanned six decades, and was regarded as "The First Lady of the American Theatre". She received four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, winning for None but the Lonely Heart (1944).
A Christmas Carol is a 1938 American drama film adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella of the same name, starring Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve after visitations by three spirits. The film was directed by Edwin L. Marin from a script by Hugo Butler.
Willard Mack was a Canadian-American actor, director, and playwright.
Helen Mack was an American actress. She started her career as a child actress in silent films, moving to Broadway plays and touring one of the vaudeville circuits. Her greater success as an actress was as a leading lady in the 1930s. She made the transition to performing on radio and then into writing, directing, and producing shows during the Golden Age of Radio. She later wrote for Broadway, stage and television. Her career spanned the infancy of the motion picture industry, the beginnings of Broadway, the final days of vaudeville, the transition to sound movies, the Golden Age of Radio, and the rise of television.
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Father and the Boys is a 1915 American silent comedy film directed by Joe De Grasse, written by Ida May Park, and co-starring Lon Chaney and Digby Bell. It is based on a popular 1908 Broadway play produced by Charles Frohman, called Father and the Boys by George Ade. This was Louise Lovely's American film debut after emigrating from Australia. She made a total of 8 films with Chaney during this time period.
Edward Mayne Ellis was an American actor. He played the title role in The Thin Man, as well as in A Man to Remember.
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Arsène Lupin is a 1932 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Jack Conway and starring John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore. It was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.The film is based on a popular 1909 play by Maurice Leblanc and Francis de Croisset. Leblanc created the character Arsène Lupin, a charming, brilliant gentleman thief in 1905. Lupin preys on rich villains.
Jim the Penman is a 1921 American silent crime drama film produced by Whitman Bennett and distributed through Associated First National, later just First National Pictures. It is based on a well known play, Jim the Penman by Charles Lawrence Young about a forger in Victorian Britain. The film stars Lionel Barrymore and was directed by Kenneth Webb, the duo having worked on The Great Adventure previously. Jim the Penman is preserved though incomplete at the Library of Congress.
The Master Mind is a lost 1920 American silent crime drama film produced by Whitman Bennett and released by Associated First National Pictures, later just First National Pictures). Kenneth Webb directed and Lionel Barrymore stars. It is based on a 1913 play, The Master Mind, by playwright Daniel David Cohen also known as Daniel D. Carter.
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The Return of Peter Grimm is a 1926 American silent fantasy film directed by Victor Schertzinger based on the 1911 play of the same name by David Belasco. It was produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation.
George Nicholls Jr., also known as George Nichols Jr., was an American director and editor during the 1930s. Born to show business parents, and son of prolific actor and director George Nichols, he entered the film industry at the tail end of the silent film era, working as an editor for the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation. After moving to RKO Pictures in 1933, Nicholls shortly began directing films by the end of the year. His career was cut short when he died in a car accident while driving to the location of his final film.
Macey Harlam was a stage and screen actor from New York. He performed on Broadway from 1901 to 1918 before switching to silent films. In films he appeared with Pauline Frederick, Douglas Fairbanks, Elsie Ferguson, Geraldine Farrar and Lionel Barrymore. He died at Saranac Lake, New York in 1923.