Sir George Mannering disapproves of the relationship of his daughter Eve and Eric Durand to a point where he hires Hilary Galt to investigate Durand's previous activities. Galt is found murdered and Eve announces to her father that she and Eric eloped and they will be moving to Egypt, devastating Sir George and American explorer Col. John Beetham, who is infatuated with Eve. Scotland Yard inspector, Sir Frederick Bruce, believes Durand had a hand in the murder of Galt, and tracks him down in Egypt, while in the meantime, Beetham meets up with Eve in Egypt, she runs away from him (its been implied that Durand has been hot-n-heavy with the maid), but then Durand goes after her to prevent Eve from telling the police what she knows about Galt's murder. If you are looking forward to this film as a Charlie Chan or Boris Karloff fan, you might be disappointed considering both have very little impact or to do in the story. The movie could use a better mystery angle, but the movie is faithful to the style of the Biggers books (romantic plot, with Charlie Chan as the secondary character solving the mystery). The performances and production are stale, but the fact that its 1929, with the emphasis on the movie being a talkie must be considered. Still director Cummings should have informed Philip Strange that melodrama was dead by this time. Rating, 3.
Review of Behind That Curtain
Behind That Curtain
(1929)
The movie giveth little, taketh away 91 minutes from life.
19 August 2004