''Behind That Curtain'' is a 1929 American

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

mystery 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 Detective, sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means ...

directed by

Irving Cummings Irving Caminsky (October 9, 1888 – April 18, 1959) was an American movie actor and director. Career Born in New York City, Cummings started his acting career at age 16 in ''Diplomacy''. His Broadway, performances included ''In the Long R ...

, starring

Warner Baxter Warner Leroy Baxter (March 29, 1889 – May 7, 1951) was an American film actor from the 1910s to the 1940s. Baxter is known for his role as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 film ''In Old Arizona'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at ...

and featuring

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...

. It was the first

Charlie Chan Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...

film to be made at

Fox Studios 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. It was based on the 1928 novel of the same name. Charlie Chan, who is played by Korean-American actor E. L. Park, gets one mention early in the film, then makes a few momentary appearances after 75 minutes. Producer William Fox chose this film to open the palatial Fox Theatre in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

on June 28, 1929. It was a

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

Cast

as Col. John Beetham *

Lois Moran Lois Moran (born Lois Darlington Dowling; March 1, 1909 – July 13, 1990) was an American film and stage actress.

as Eve Mannering Durand *

Gilbert Emery Gilbert Emery Bensley Pottle (June 11, 1875 – October 28, 1945), known professionally as Gilbert Emery, was an American actor who appeared in over 80 movies from 1921 to his death in 1945. He was also a playwright, author of seven Broadway play ...

as Sir Frederick Bruce (as Gilbert Emory) *

Claude King Claude King (February 5, 1923 – March 7, 2013) was an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for his million selling 1962 hit, "Wolverton Mountain". Biography King was born in Keithville in southern Caddo Parish south ...

as Sir George Mannering *

Philip Strange Philip Strange (4 June 1884 – 5 January 1963) was a British actor. Selected filmography * '' The Ace of Cads'' (1926) * ''Broadway Nights'' (1927) * ''Nevada'' (1927) * ''Wall Street'' (1929) * ''The Unholy Night'' (1929) * '' The Rescue'' (19 ...

as Eric Durand *

as Beetham's Manservant * Jamiel Hasson as Sahib Hana *

Peter Gawthorne Peter Gawthorne (1 September 1884 – 17 March 1962) was an Anglo-Irish actor, probably best known for his roles in the films of Will Hay and other popular British comedians of the 1930s and 1940s. Gawthorne was one of Britain's most called-upo ...

as British Police Inspector * John Rogers as Alf Pornick *

Edgar Norton Edgar Norton (born Harry Edgar Mills; August 11, 1868 – February 6, 1953) was an English-born American character actor. Early years Norton was born in Islington in London, England, on August 11, 1868, as Harry Edgar Mills, one of eight child ...

as Hilary Galt * E.L. Park as Police Insp. Charlie Chan

References

External links

* 1929 films 1929 mystery films 1920s English-language films American black-and-white films American mystery films Charlie Chan films Films directed by Irving Cummings Films based on mystery novels Films based on American novels Films produced by William Fox Films with screenplays by Sonya Levien Fox Film films 1920s American films {{mystery-film-stub

Cast

See also

References

External links