''At the Villa Rose'', also known as ''House of Mystery'', is a 1940 British
detective film
A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, i ...
directed by
Walter Summers
Walter Summers (1892–1973) was a British film director and screenwriter.
Biography
Born in Barnstaple to a family of actors, British motion picture director Walter Summers began his career in the family trade; his first contact with filmma ...
and starring
Kenneth Kent
Kenneth Kent (20 April 1892 – 17 November 1963) was an English actor. He is most notable for his roles as Inspector Hanaud in the film '' At the Villa Rose'' (1940) and as Emperor Napoleon in the film ''Idol of Paris'' (1948).
Partial filmo ...
and
Judy Kelly
Julie Aileen Kelly (1 November 1913 – 22 October 1991), known professionally as Judy Kelly, was an Australian-born British actress. She arrived in Britain in 1932 after winning a competition organised by the Australian British Empire Films, wh ...
. It is based on the novel ''
At the Villa Rose'' by
A.E.W. Mason featuring the French detective
Inspector Hanaud
Inspector Gabriel Hanaud is a fictional French detective depicted in a series of five novels and one novella by the British writer A. E. W. Mason. He has been described as the "first major fiction police detective of the Twentieth Century".
B ...
.
Cast
*
Kenneth Kent
Kenneth Kent (20 April 1892 – 17 November 1963) was an English actor. He is most notable for his roles as Inspector Hanaud in the film '' At the Villa Rose'' (1940) and as Emperor Napoleon in the film ''Idol of Paris'' (1948).
Partial filmo ...
as
Inspector Hanaud
Inspector Gabriel Hanaud is a fictional French detective depicted in a series of five novels and one novella by the British writer A. E. W. Mason. He has been described as the "first major fiction police detective of the Twentieth Century".
B ...
*
Judy Kelly
Julie Aileen Kelly (1 November 1913 – 22 October 1991), known professionally as Judy Kelly, was an Australian-born British actress. She arrived in Britain in 1932 after winning a competition organised by the Australian British Empire Films, wh ...
as Celia Harland
*
Peter Murray-Hill as Harry Wethermill
*
Walter Rilla
Walter Rilla (22 August 1894 – 21 November 1980) was a German film actor of Jewish descent.Siegbert Salomon Prawer, ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933'', Berghahn Books (2007), pg. 213 He appea ...
as Mr. Ricardo
*
Ruth Maitland
Ruth Maitland (born Emma Christian Ruth Erskine; 3 February 1880 – 12 March 1961) was an English actress. She is known for her roles in '' The Faithful Heart'' (1922), '' The Farmer's Wife'' (1928), '' The Only Girl'' (1933), and '' At the Vill ...
as Madame Dauvray
*
Antoinette Cellier as Adele Rossignol
*
Clifford Evans as Tace
*
Martita Hunt
Martita Edith Hunt (30 January 190013 June 1969) was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havi ...
as Helen Vaquier
*
Ronald Adam
General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, 2nd Baronet, (30 October 1885 – 26 December 1982) was a senior British Army officer. He had an important influence on the conduct of the British Army during the Second World War as a result of his long tenure ...
as Mons. Besnard
Reception
Allmovie called the film a "modest but intriguing British melodrama."
References
External links
*
1940 films
1940 mystery films
British detective films
Films shot at Associated British Studios
1940s English-language films
Films directed by Walter Summers
1940 crime films
British black-and-white films
1940s British films
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