''The Yellow Claw'' is a 1921 British silent

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

René Plaissetty René Plaissetty (1889–1955) was an American film director. Son of Achille Plaissetty, chemist and businessman and Corinne Bonnecaze, professor of singing, René Plaissetty was born on March 7, 1889, in Chicago. In 1907 he came to live in F ...

and starring

Sydney Seaward Sydney Widmer Seaward (27 January 1884 – 22 June 1967) was an English actor born in Blindley Heath, Godstone, Surrey, England, United Kingdom and died at age 83 in Matlock, Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom. Selected filmography * ''Pierre of ...

, Arthur M. Cullin and

Harvey Braban Harvey Braban (19 May 1883, in Brighton, Sussex, UK – 1943) was a British stage actor. He also appeared in films between 1920–1938. Braban performed regularly in West End plays, and also occasionally on Broadway. From 1920 he began appe ...

. The film was shot partly at

Cricklewood Studios Cricklewood Studios, also known as the Stoll Film Studios, were British film studios located in Cricklewood, London which operated from 1920 to 1938. Run by Sir Oswald Stoll as the principal base for his newly formed Stoll Pictures, which also ...

and ran 68 minutes.Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 231. . It was based on the 1915 novel '' The Yellow Claw'' by

Sax Rohmer Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in Da ...

, in which a French detective battles a notorious master criminal named Mr. King.

Plot

A frightened woman is murdered in the London apartment of a well-known novelist named Henry Leroux. The police arrest Leroux's butler, but he escapes and runs off to a mysterious opium den, the lair of a drug dealer named Mister King. Gaston Max, a detective from Paris, arrives in London to investigate the drug trafficking. Although the police take down the gang, Mr. King escapes and manages to keep his true identity a secret.

Cast

as Inspector Dunbar * Arthur M. Cullin as Dr. Cumberley *

as Gaston Max *

Annie Esmond Annie Esmond (27 September 1873 – 4 January 1945) was a British stage and film actress. Esmond was born in Surrey, England. She made her stage debut in pantomime in Sheffield in 1891 and later appeared on the American as well as British stage ...

as Denise Ryland *

Norman Page Norman Page (born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshiredied 4 July 1935 in London) was a British actor. He is best known for his portrayal of David Lloyd George, Prime Minister during the First World War, in the 1918 film ''The Life Story of David Lloyd ...

as Soames * Kitty Fielder as Lady of the Poppies * Kiyoshi Takase as Ho-Pin * A.C. Fotheringham-Lysons as Henry Leroux * Mary Massart as Helen Cumberley *

Cyril Percival Cyril Percival (1889–1948) was a British film actor of the silent era.Goble p.122 Selected filmography * '' Love in a Wood'' (1915) * ''The Princess of Happy Chance ''The Princess of Happy Chance'' is a 1917 British silent romance film dir ...

as John Howard Edel * Ivy King as Mrs. Leroux * June Tripp as Mrs. Vernon * Eric Albury as Gianopolis * Geoffrey Benstead as Sowerby

Other Stoll Pictures productions on the same theme

Producer Stoll went on to release another xenophobic

Yellow Peril The Yellow Peril (also the Yellow Terror and the Yellow Specter) is a racist, racial color terminology for race, color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the Western world. As a ...

film called '' Mr. Wu'' in 1919 (which was remade in 1927 with Lon Chaney in the lead), a 15-film Fu Manchu series called ''The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu'' in 1923, and an eight-film series in 1924 called ''The Further Mysteries of Dr. Fu Manchu'', both series starring

Harry Agar Lyons Harry Agar Lyons (1 April 1878 – 1944) was an Irish-born British actor. He was born in Cork, Ireland in 1878 and died in Wandsworth, London, England in 1944 at age 72. Lyons is best known for playing Fu Manchu in a series of fifteen silent ...

as Fu.

References

Sources

* *

External links

* 1921 films 1921 crime films British crime films British silent feature films Films directed by René Plaissetty Films based on British novels Films shot at Cricklewood Studios British black-and-white films 1920s police procedural films 1920s English-language films 1920s British films {{1920s-UK-film-stub