''The Scotland Yard Mystery'' is a 1934 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

Thomas Bentley Thomas Bentley (23 February 1884 – 23 December 1966) was a British film director. He directed 68 films between 1912 and 1941. He directed three films in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, ''The Man in the Street'' (1926), '' ...

and starring Sir

Gerald du Maurier Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier (26 March 1873 – 11 April 1934) was an English actor and manager. He was the son of author George du Maurier and his wife, Emma Wightwick, and the brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1903, he m ...

, George Curzon,

Grete Natzler Grete Natzler (19 June 1906 – 10 June 1999) was an Austrian actress and operatic soprano. Born in Vienna, she was the daughter of actress Lilli Meißner and actor and opera singer Leopold Natzler (1860–1926). Two of her younger sisters we ...

Belle Chrystall Belle Chrystall (25 April 19107 June 2003) was a British actress who appeared in a number of leading roles in British films during the 1930s. She was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1910. She came to London and after appearing on stage was given a ...

and

Wally Patch Walter Sydney Vinnicombe (26 September 1888 – 27 October 1970) was an English actor and comedian. He worked in film, television and theatre. Biography Vinnicombe was born in Willesden, Middlesex and began working on the music hall stages in ...

. The screenplay concerns a criminal doctor who operates a racket claiming

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...

by injecting victims with a life suspending serum turning them into

living dead ''Living Dead'' is a blanket term for the loosely connected horror franchise that originated from the 1968 film ''Night of the Living Dead''. The film, written by George A. Romero and John A. Russo, primarily focuses on a group of people gath ...

. The film is based on a play by

Wallace Geoffrey Wallace Geoffrey was a British writer and actor. Partial filmography Actor * ''Brown Sugar'' (1931) * '' The House Opposite'' (1931) * '' The Flying Fool'' (1931) * '' Detective Lloyd'', a serial * '' Life Goes On'' (1932) * ''Aren't We All?'' (1 ...

. It was made by one of the biggest British companies of the era,

British International Pictures Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), originally British International Pictures (BIP), was a British film production, distribution and exhibition company active from 1927 until 1970 when it was absorbed into EMI. ABPC also owned appro ...

, at their

Welwyn Studios Welwyn Studios was a British film studio located at Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, in Hertfordshire. The facility operated between 1928 and 1950. The studios were first constructed by British Instructional Films, and converted to make s ...

Plot summary

Cast

* Sir

as Commissioner Stanton * George Curzon as Doctor Charles Masters *

as Irene Masters *

as Mary Stanton *

Leslie Perrins Leslie Perrins (7 October 1901 – 13 December 1962) was an English actor who often played villains. After training at RADA, he was on stage from 1922, and in his long career, appeared in well over 60 films. Hobbies Perrins and wife Violet w ...

as John Freeman *

Frederick Peisley Frederick Walter James Peisley (6 December 1904 – 22 March 1975) was a British stage, film and television actor and theatre director whose career spanned five decades. He is known for ''The Secret of the Loch'' (1934), ''Gentlemen's Agreement' ...

as Kenneth Bailey *

(billed as Walter Patch) as Detective Sergeant George *

Henry Victor Henry Victor (2 October 1892 – 15 March 1945) was an English-born character actor who had his highest profile in the film silent era, he appeared in numerous film roles in Britain, before emigrating to the US in 1939 where he continued ...

as Floyd * Herbert Cameron as Paxton *

Paul Graetz Paul Graetz (8 August 1889 – 16 February 1937) was a German actor and star of the Weimar cabaret. Selected filmography * '' The Peruvian'' (1919) * ''The Princess of the Nile'' (1920) * ''Christian Wahnschaffe'' (1920) * ''Mary Magdalene'' (19 ...

as Paston

References

Bibliography

*Low, Rachael. ''Filmmaking in 1930s Britain''. George Allen & Unwin, 1985. *Wood, Linda. ''British Films, 1927-1939''. British Film Institute, 1986.

External links

* 1934 films 1934 crime drama films British crime drama films Films shot at Welwyn Studios 1930s English-language films Films directed by Thomas Bentley Films set in London British films based on plays British black-and-white films 1930s British films {{1930s-crime-drama-film-stub