''Trent's Last Case'' is a 1929 American Synchronized
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...
detective film directed by
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter of the Classical Hollywood cinema, classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American ...
and starring
Raymond Griffith,
Marceline Day
Marceline Day (born Marceline Newlin; April 24, 1908 – February 16, 2000) was an American motion picture actress whose career began as a child in the 1910s and ended in the 1930s.
Early life
Marceline Newlin was born in Colorado Springs, Color ...
,
Raymond Hatton, and
Donald Crisp
Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English people, English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best S ...
. It was released by
Fox Film Corporation
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American independent company that produced motion pictures and was formed in 1914 by the theater "chain" pioneer William Fox (producer), William Fox. It was the corporate successor to ...
. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film
Movietone process.
The film is based on the 1913 novel ''
Trent's Last Case'' by British writer
E. C. Bentley.
A previous version starring
Clive Brook
Clifford Hardman "Clive" Brook (1 June 1887 – 17 November 1974) was an English stage and film actor.
After making his first screen appearance in 1920, Brook emerged as a leading British actor in the early 1920s. After moving to the Unit ...
was filmed in the UK in 1920 and released by
Stoll Film Company.
Premise
A leading financier is found dead at his home, leading amateur detective Philip Trent to investigate the case.
Cast
*
Raymond Griffith as Philip Trent
*
Marceline Day
Marceline Day (born Marceline Newlin; April 24, 1908 – February 16, 2000) was an American motion picture actress whose career began as a child in the 1910s and ended in the 1930s.
Early life
Marceline Newlin was born in Colorado Springs, Color ...
as Evelyn Manderson
*
Raymond Hatton as Joshua Cupples
*
Donald Crisp
Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English people, English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best S ...
as Sigsbee Manderson
*
Lawrence Gray
Lawrence Gray (July 27, 1898 – February 2, 1970) was an American actor of the 1920s and 1930s.
Early life and career
Born on July 27, 1898, in San Francisco, Gray attended schools there and worked in Standard Oil Company's export depar ...
as Jack Marlowe
*
Nicholas Soussanin as Martin
*
Anita Garvin as Ottilie Dunois
*
Edgar Kennedy
Edgar Livingston Kennedy (April 26, 1890 – November 9, 1948) was an American comedic character actor who appeared in at least 500 films during the silent and sound eras. Professionally, he was known as "Slow Burn", owing to his ability to por ...
as Inspector Murch
Preservation status
According to Silent Era, a print exists. An incomplete print is held by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
.
[''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'', (<-book title) p.189 c.1978 by The American Film Institute]
See also
* ''
Trent's Last Case'' (1952)
*
List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)
This is a list of early pre-recorded sound and part or full talking feature films made in the United States and Europe during the transition from silent film to sound film, sound, between 1926 and 1929. During this time a variety of recording syst ...
References
External links
*
''Trent's Last Case'' at SilentEra
1929 films
American detective films
1920s English-language films
Films directed by Howard Hawks
1929 crime films
American black-and-white films
Fox Film films
Films based on British novels
Films based on mystery novels
American remakes of British films
Sound film remakes of silent films
Transitional sound films
American crime films
Films based on works by Edmund Clerihew Bentley
1920s American films
Part-talkie films
English-language crime films
Synchronized sound films
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