''The Menace'' is a 1932 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the 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 censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

American

crime drama film In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

directed by Roy William Neill. The screenplay by Roy Chanslor, Dorothy Howell, and Charles Logue is based on the 1927 novel ''The Feathered Serpent'' by

Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during th ...

Plot

Englishman Ronald Quayle was accused of murdering his father and, based on testimony offered by his stepmother Caroline, was found guilty and imprisoned. Managing to escape, he fled to the United States and found work in an oil field, where an explosion scarred his face. After undergoing plastic surgery, he returns home under the alias Robert Crockett, determined to prove Caroline and her lover Jack Utterson really killed his father. Having squandered her inheritance, Caroline has put the Quayle home on the market. Pretending to be a potential buyer, Ronald introduces himself to Caroline. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard Inspector Tracy has assigned Ronald's former fiancée Peggy Lowel to inventory the contents of the house in the hope she will find evidence to clear Ronald's name. Ronald initiates a romance with Caroline and, announcing his plan to elope to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

with her, presents her with a magnificent necklace. At a Halloween party, Ronald plants the necklace on Caroline's cohort Sam Lewis, who is killed by Jack. He conceals the body in a sarcophagus, and after Ronald finds it he reports his discovery to Inspector Tracy. During the ensuing investigation of the crime, Ronald and Jack fight near a statue of a feathered serpent, which falls on Jack. As he lies dying, he confesses to murdering Ronald's father and implicates Caroline. Ronald is exonerated, and he and Peggy make plans to marry and settle in Quayle Manor.

Cast (in credits order)

* H.B. Warner as Inspector Tracy * Walter Byron as Ronald Quayle / Robert Crockett *

Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...

as Peggy Lowell *

Natalie Moorhead Natalie Moorhead (born Nathalian Morehead, July 27, 1901 – October 6, 1992) was an American film and stage actress of the 1920s and 1930s. She was known for distinctive platinum blond hair. Early years Moorehead grew up in Pittsburgh. ...

as Caroline Quayle * William B. Davidson as John Utterson *

Crauford Kent Crauford Kent (12 October 1881 – 14 May 1953) was an English character actor based in the United States. He has also been credited as Craufurd Kent

as Sam Lewis *

Halliwell Hobbes Herbert Halliwell Hobbes (16 November 187720 February 1962) was an English actor. Early years The future actor was the son of William Albert Hobbes (1841-1909), a Warwickshire solicitor, and his wife, Marion Hobbes, née Dennis, (1838-1925). ...

as Phillips * Charles K. Gerrard as Bailiff *

Murray Kinnell Murray Kinnell (24 July 1889 – 11 August 1954) was a British-born American actor, recognized for playing smooth, gentlemanly, although rather shady characters. He appeared in 71 films in the USA between the pre-code era of 1930 and 1937. He wa ...

as Carr

Production

When

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

purchased the film rights to Edgar Wallace's novel ''The Feathered Serpent'', the author was working as a screenwriter at the studio, but the film adaptation's budget was so small it did not allow for Wallace to write the script at the salary he was drawing at the time. The film was shot in only eight days. Upon its completion, studio executives decided its title might mislead audiences into thinking it was an action adventure film instead of a murder mystery, so it was changed, first to ''The Squeaker'' and then ''The Menace''.Stine, Whitney, and Davis, Bette, ''Mother Goddam: The Story of the Career of Bette Davis''. New York: Hawthorn Books 1974. , pp. 14-15

, under contract to

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

, was loaned to Columbia for the small supporting role of Peggy Lowell. Also in the cast was

, who recommended Davis to his close friend

George Arliss George Arliss (born Augustus George Andrews; 10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he ...

when he was searching for an actress for the ingenue role in '' The Man Who Played God'', which generally is acknowledged as the film that finally brought the actress to the attention of critics and the movie-going public.

Critical reception

Andre Sennwald of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' stated, "The imaginative adaptation and sorrowful dialogue are probably to blame for the shortcomings of this film, for the situation has elements of suspense . . . The cast is quite satisfactory . . . But ''The Menace'' is hardly adult entertainment."''New York Times'' review
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References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menace, The 1932 films American crime drama films Films based on British novels Films based on crime novels Films set in England Columbia Pictures films Films based on works by Edgar Wallace American black-and-white films Films directed by Roy William Neill 1932 crime drama films 1930s American films