''The Roof'' is a 1933 British

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by

George A. Cooper George Alphonsus Cooper (7 March 1925 – 16 November 2018) was an English actor and voice artist. He died in November 2018 at the age of 93. Early life Cooper was born in Leeds, the son of William and Eleanor (née Dobson) Cooper. His father ...

and starring Leslie Perrins,

Judy Gunn Judy Gunn, born Joan Winfindale (10 February 1915 – 19 April 1991) was a British stage and film actress. When she was thirteen, she played a leading role in a local dramatic performance and the following year she went to RADA to study, where s ...

, Russell Thorndike and Michael Hogan. It was shot at Twickenham Studios in London as a quota quickie for release by

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

.Chibnall p.275 The film's sets were designed by Twickenham's resident

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

James A. Carter James A. Carter (born 1902) was a British art director and occasional film producer. Carter was born in London in 1902. He studied at the Royal Academy of Art and the Royal Academy of Music, before beginning his career in the film industry at ...

. It was based on the novel of the same title by

David Whitelaw David Whitelaw (1875–1970) British writer, editor and illustrator. Life and work David Whitelaw was born in Holloway, Islington, then still in Middlesex, to David Whitelaw and Hannah Baxter. Both of his parents died during his infancy and ...

Cast

* Leslie Perrins as Inspector Darrow *

as Carol Foster * Russell Thorndike as Clive Bristow * Michael Hogan as Samuel Morton * Ivor Barnard as Arthur Stannard * Eliot Makeham as John Rutherford * Barbara Everest as Mrs Foster *

George Zucco George Zucco (11 January 1886 – 27 May 1960) was a British character actor who appeared in plays and 96 films, mostly American-made, during a career spanning over two decades, from the 1920s to 1951. In his films, he often played a suave ...

as James Renton * Leo Britt - Tony Freyne * D. J. Williams as Fritz Klein * Hector Abbas as Otto Bebberg * Cyril Smith as McNair

References

Bibliography

* Chibnall, Steve. ''Quota Quickies: The Birth of the British 'B' Film''. British Film Institute, 2007. * Low, Rachael. ''Filmmaking in 1930s Britain''. George Allen & Unwin, 1985. * Wood, Linda. ''British Films, 1927-1939''. British Film Institute, 1986.

External links

* 1933 films 1933 crime films 1930s English-language films Films directed by George A. Cooper Films shot at Twickenham Film Studios British black-and-white films British crime films 1930s British films RKO Pictures films Quota quickies Films based on British novels {{1930s-crime-film-stub