The Thirteenth Hour (1927 film)

Last updated

The Thirteenth Hour
The Thirteenth Hour - 1927.jpg
1927 lobby card
Directed by Chester M. Franklin
Written by Edward T. Lowe Jr.
Screenplay byChester M. Franklin
Douglas Furber
Story byChester M. Franklin
Douglas Furber
Sydney Horler(novelization) [1]
Intertitles:
Wellyn Totman
Starring Lionel Barrymore
Jacqueline Gadsdon
Charles Delaney
Cinematography Max Fabian
Edited by Dan Sharits
Distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Release date
  • October 13, 1927 (1927-10-13)(United States)
Running time
6 reels, 5,252 feet
CountryUnited States
Languages Silent film
(English intertitles)

The Thirteenth Hour (aka:The 13th Hour) is a 1927 American silent mystery film produced and distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer and directed by Chester Franklin. [2] [3] 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. [4] [5] [6] This was the first film where Barrymore was cast opposite talented dogs, [7] and the first where he was cast as a serial killer. [8] [9]

Contents

A print of this film survives in 16mm. [10]

Plot

Junior detective Gray (Charles Delaney) discovers that the eccentric criminologist Professor Leroy (Lionel Barrymore) is both a crook and a murderer. [11] A German Shepherd chases the elusive LeRoy throughout a large house filled with secret rooms.

Cast

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Hollywood Revue</i> 1929 film

The Hollywood Revue of 1929, or simply The Hollywood Revue, is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the studio's second feature-length musical, and one of their earliest sound films. Produced by Harry Rapf and Irving Thalberg and directed by Charles Reisner, it features nearly all of MGM's stars in a two-hour revue that includes three segments in Technicolor. The masters of ceremonies are Conrad Nagel and Jack Benny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lionel Barrymore</span> American actor, director, screenwriter (1878–1954)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Barrymore</span> American actor (1882–1942)

John Barrymore was an American actor on stage, screen, and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly attempted a career as an artist, but appeared on stage together with his father Maurice in 1900, and then his sister Ethel the following year. He began his career in 1903 and first gained attention as a stage actor in light comedy, then high drama, culminating in productions of Justice (1916), Richard III (1920), and Hamlet (1922); his portrayal of Hamlet led to him being called the "greatest living American tragedian".

<i>The Exploits of Elaine</i> 1914 American film

The Exploits of Elaine is a 1914 American film serial in the damsel in distress genre of The Perils of Pauline (1914).

<i>Cats Eye</i> (1985 film) 1985 American anthology horror film directed by Lewis Teague

Cat's Eye is a 1985 American anthology horror thriller film directed by Lewis Teague and written by Stephen King. It comprises three stories: "Quitters, Inc.", "The Ledge", and "General". The first two are adaptations of short stories in King's 1978 Night Shift collection, and the third is unique to the film. The cast includes Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Alan King, Robert Hays and Candy Clark. The three stories are connected by the presence of a traveling cat and Barrymore, both of whom play incidental roles in the first two and major characters in the third.

<i>Mark of the Vampire</i> 1935 film by Tod Browning

Mark of the Vampire is a 1935 American horror film produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), starring Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt, and directed by Tod Browning. A series of deaths and attacks by vampires brings the eminent expert Professor Zelen to the aid of Irena Borotyn, who is about to be married. Her father, Sir Karell, died from complete loss of blood, with bite wounds on his neck, and it appears he may be one of the undead now plaguing the area.

<i>London After Midnight</i> (film) Lost 1927 American silent film

London After Midnight is a lost 1927 American silent mystery horror film directed and co-produced by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney, with Marceline Day, Conrad Nagel, Henry B. Walthall and Polly Moran. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was written by Waldemar Young, based on the story "The Hypnotist" which was written by Browning. Merritt B. Gerstad was the cinematographer, and the sets were designed by Cedric Gibbons and Arnold Gillespie. Harry Sharrock was the assistant director. The film cost $151,666.14 to produce, and grossed $1,004,000. Chaney's real-life make-up case can be seen in the last scene of the film sitting on a table, the only time it ever appeared in a film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Wolheim</span> American character actor (1880–1931)

Louis Robert Wolheim was an American actor, of both stage and screen, whose rough physical appearance relegated him to roles mostly of thugs, villains and occasionally a soldier with a heart of gold in the movies, but whose talent allowed him to flourish on stage. His career was mostly contained during the silent era of the film industry, due to his death at the age of 50 in 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Diamant-Berger</span> Director, producer and screenwriter

Henri Diamant-Berger was a French director, producer and screenwriter. In a career that lasted more than 50 years, he directed 48 films between 1913 and 1959, produced 17 between 1925 and 1967 and wrote 21 screenplays between 1916 and 1971.

<i>Treasure Island</i> (1934 film) 1934 film

Treasure Island is a 1934 film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, and Nigel Bruce. It is an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous 1883 novel of the same name. Jim Hawkins discovers a treasure map and travels on a sailing ship to a remote island, but pirates led by Long John Silver threaten to take away the honest seafarers’ riches and lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montagu Love</span> English actor (1877–1943)

Montagu Love was an English screen, stage and vaudeville actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Delaney</span> American actor (1892–1959)

Charles Delaney was an American actor.

<i>Alias Jimmy Valentine</i> (1928 film) 1928 film by Jack Conway

Alias Jimmy Valentine is a 1928 American sound part-talkie crime drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring William Haines, Leila Hyams, Lionel Barrymore, and Karl Dane. The film features talking sequences along with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film is based on the 1909 play Alias Jimmy Valentine by Paul Armstrong, which itself was based on an O. Henry short story. The play toured in travelling production companies making it extremely popular. It was revived on Broadway in 1921. Two previous film adaptations had been produced at the old Metro Studios. A 1915 film version was directed by Maurice Tourneur and a 1920 version starring Bert Lytell was directed by Edmund Mortimer and Arthur Ripley.

<i>The Unholy Night</i> 1929 American mystery film

The Unholy Night is a 1929 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Lionel Barrymore and starring Ernest Torrence.

<i>The Eternal City</i> (1923 film) 1923 film by George Fitzmaurice

The Eternal City is a 1923 American silent drama film directed by George Fitzmaurice, from a script by Ouida Bergère based on the 1901 Hall Caine novel of the same name, and starring Barbara La Marr, Lionel Barrymore, and Bert Lytell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Young (actress)</span> American actress

Mary Marsden Young was an American stage, film and television actress whose career spanned the first sixty years of the 20th century. She started her career in the theatre and ended playing elderly ladies in film and lastly on television.

Harry C. Neumann of Chicago, Illinois, was a Hollywood cinematographer whose career spanned over forty years, including work on some 350 productions in a wide variety of genres, with much of his work being in Westerns, and gangster films.

<i>The House of Discord</i> 1913 American film

The House of Discord (1913) is a silent American drama film directed by James Kirkwood, Sr., written by F. E. Woods and A. Clayton Harris from a play by William C. deMille. The film stars Lionel Barrymore and marked the theatrical film debut of actor Jack Mulhall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester M. Franklin</span> American film director

Chester Mortimer Franklin was an American film director and actor active mainly in the silent era. Born in San Francisco, he was the brother of Sidney A. Franklin. In the late 1910s, he co-directed with his brother Sidney several films with all-children casts for William Fox. He directed two silent horror films, the 1924 Behind the Curtain and the 1927 The Thirteenth Hour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom O'Brien (actor, born 1890)</span> American actor (1890–1947)

Tom O'Brien was an American silent and sound character actor known for his burly serio-comic roles.

References

  1. The 13th Hour, novelization, by Sydney Horler UK 1930
  2. 2012, 1927, English, Book, Illustrated edition: Extract from The 13th hour, illustrated with scenes from the photoplay {electronic resource} (National Library of Australia Trove)
  3. Everson, William K. (1972). The detective in film (illustrated ed.). Citadel Press. pp. 29, 35, 217. ISBN   9780806502984.
  4. Hadden, Briton; Luce, Henry Robinson (1927). "The Thirteenth Hour". Time Magazine . pp. Volume 10. Retrieved November 27, 2010.
  5. Pitts, Michael R. (2004). Famous movie detectives III, Volume 3. G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series (illustrated ed.). Scarecrow Press. p. 285. ISBN   9780810836907.
  6. The Educational screen, Volume 7. Educational Screen, Inc. 1928. p. 16.
  7. Lionel Barrymore, Cameron Shipp (1974). We Barrymores (illustrated ed.). Greenwood Press. p. 258. ISBN   9780837175508.
  8. Rigby, Jonathan (2007). American Gothic: Sixty Years of Horror Cinema (illustrated ed.). Reynolds & Hearn. p. 53. ISBN   9781905287253.
  9. Al Hirschfeld caricature of The Thirteenth Hour cast (Al Hirschfeld Foundation website)
  10. The Thirteenth Hour at Silent Era Database
  11. "Mr. Barrymore's New Idea" (The New York Times, November 28, 1927)