THE TERROR
UK, 1938, 70 minutes, Black and white.
Wilfrid Lawson, Bernard Lee, Arthur Wontner, Linden Travers, Alastair Sim.
Directed by Richard Bird.
The Terror is a brief programmer film from 1938, based on a play by Edgar Wallace.
The film is a murder mystery, with a touch of fantasy and the absurd. It is quite wittily written.
The film focuses on a robbery, gas released on a highway and a truck full of gold missing. Two of the perpetrators are jailed. Ten years pass and they are released, determined to find the mastermind who betrayed them.
The film then shifts to a country estate, owned by a colonel played by Arthur Wontner (who had played Sherlock Holmes in a number of British films). His daughter, Linden Travers (No Orchids for Miss Blandish) comes back from finishing school. There is an odd assortment of guests including a psychic and her daughter as well as the mysterious Mr Goodman, a friend of the family. There is also a layabout, always drunk, played by Bernard Lee. (This is a trick of the film, because his police inspector character is only seen at Scotland Yard from the back.)
One of the robbers is murdered, the other disguises himself as a friar (this is Alastair Sim in familiar mode). The mad villain, Mr Goodman, dressed as a monk, plays the organ from the basement at night, captures Mary (a touch of Phantom of the Opera) and threatens her and the detective. It all works out in the end.
1. The popularity of this kind of Edgar Wallace mystery? Edgar Wallace Theatre?
2. British film-making in the late 30s? B-budget films, supporting features?
3. The atmosphere, black and white photography, the robbery on the mountain, the mansion, Scotland Yard? The musical score?
4. The robbery sequences, the two criminals and their personalities, the masks, releasing the gas, Mr Goodman disguised? Their being betrayed, not getting any of the gold? Their being arrested after the informant’s phone call? The ten years of their sentence? The police insisting to get the information?
5. The mansion, Colonel Redmayne and his background? Mary and finishing school and her return? Mr Goodman as the family friend? The gifts, Mrs Elvery as the psychic, her daughter? The role of the butler?
6. The meals, the organ-playing, the mystery atmosphere?
7. The revelation of Mr Goodman, in the monk’s cowl, the murder, the confrontation with the crook disguised as a friar? His capturing Ferdy, Mary?
8. Ferdy, always drunk, the detective, keeping an eye open, unmasking the friar? Caught by Mr Goodman?
9. The final confrontation, the fight, the resolution of the mystery?
