House of Secrets

• Director: Edmund Lawrence
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Crime
• Release Year: 1929
• Country: US
• Run Time: 60 minutes

Plot

The first sound film to be released by Poverty Row company Chesterfield and one of the earliest sound-on-film productions, The House of Secrets was filmed on rented stages in New York City with a cast of mainly little-known stage actors. Joseph Stryker (John the Baptist of De Mille's King of Kings) starred as a young man arriving in England to claim his inheritance, an old mansion known as "the Hawk's Nest." The inheritance proves quite a debacle for poor Barry, who finds his new home "haunted" by a couple of American gangsters (Richard Stevenson and Harry M. Southard), not to mention the previous owner, a mysterious scientist (Francis M. Verdi) who is developing a secret nerve gas on the premises. Also present are a skulking Chinese (Edward Roseman), a brash American detective (Herbert Warren), and the inventor's purported daughter (Marcia Mannon), with whom Barry falls in love. Although The House of Secrets proved a distinct flop, Chesterfield remade the story -- in Hollywood this time -- in 1936 starring Leslie Fenton and Muriel Evans. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Cast

Elmer Grandin - Dr. Gordon; Ed Roseman - Wu Chang; Joseph Striker - Barry Wilding; Richard Stevenson - Bill; Herbert Warren - Joe Blake

Credit

Edmund Lawrence - Director, Selma Rosenbloom - Editor, George Peters - Cinematographer, George Webber - Cinematographer, Irving Browning - Cinematographer, Lester Lang - Cinematographer, Sidney Hall - Screenwriter, Adeline Leitzbach - Screenwriter, Sydney Horler - Book Author