The Crooked Circle (1932)

Director:

H. Bruce Humberstone

Writers:

Ralph Spence (screenplay)
Tim Whelan (additional dialogue)

Release Date:

25 September 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Mystery

Tagline:

Everything From Spooks To Nuts!!!

Plot:

A group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occultists. |

Plot Keywords:

Amateur Detective | Mystic | Occult Ritual | Hermit | Hunchback

Cast

Zasu Pitts	...	Nora Rafferty
James Gleason	...	Arthur Crimmer
Ben Lyon	...	Brand Osborne
Irene Purcell	...	Thelma Parker
C. Henry Gordon	...	Yoganda
Raymond Hatton	...	Harmon (The Hermit) (as Ray Hatton)
Roscoe Karns	...	Harry Carter
Berton Churchill	...	Col. Walters (as Burton Churchill)
Spencer Charters	...	Kinny
Robert Frazer	...	The Stranger
Ethel Clayton	...	Yvonne
Frank Reicher	...	Rankin
Christian Rub	...	Old Dan
Tom Kennedy	...	Mike, the policeman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul Panzer	...	Cult Member (uncredited)

Directed by
H. Bruce Humberstone

Writing credits
Ralph Spence		(screenplay)
Tim Whelan		(additional dialogue)

Produced by
William Sistrom	....	producer

Cinematography by
Robert Kurrle		(as Robert B. Kurrle)

Film Editing by
Doane Harrison

Art Direction by
Paul Crawley		(as Paul Roe Crawley)

Sound Department
William R. Fox	....	sound engineer (as William Fox)

Music Department
Val Burton	....	musical director (uncredited)

Other crew
E.W. Hammons	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Sono Art-World Wide Pictures

Distributors

• Sono Art-World Wide Pictures (1932) (USA) (theatrical)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Nostalgia Collectibles (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Nostalgia Collectibles (2005) (USA) (VHS)
• Teakwood Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Company:

Sono Art-World Wide Pictures

Trivia:

The first television showing of this film was on Tuesday night, June 18, 1940 in NYC over NBC's W2XBS station.

Warring Clubs

By 1930, film was already a living, breathing organism that was manipulating artists and audiences in its quest to survive and grow. From 1932 to 1938, that organism tried a number of potential branches of evolution before settling on one main one. But during that period, many experiments can be viewed, experiments that did not blossom and quickly became extinct.

Sadly, this exemplifies one of them and it is such a perfect example, such a pure specimen, it really must be seen if only for history. I'm increasingly convinced that we cannot be fully in the film experience until we have shared in some of its failed attempts.

What characterizes this is extreme abstraction. The basis is the detective story, a basis that is so strong in narrative appeal it survives today as the root of most film. But this experiment abstracts it extremely.

The bad guys are not just bad, but have a club. The good guys are not just good and smart, but they have a club too. The two clubs are at war, mostly it seems because that's what two groups do: define the other as the enemy and adopt roles accordingly.

The setting is abstract too: a "haunted" mansion with trap doors, secret passages, resident hunchback, disembodied music, skeletons (that predictably catch on the girl's dress) and blackouts. There's a very, very clever twist in the story too, one you know is there but you just can't pin down until it happens.

Zazu Pitts does a spooked housekeeper whose voice would be appropriated for Olive Oyl who would make her first appearance the following year.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.