The final warning
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The final warning |
| Original title | The Last Warning |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1929 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Leni |
| script |
Alfred A. Cohn Robert F. Hill Tom Reed J. G. Hawks |
| production | Carl Laemmle |
| music | Joseph Cherniavsky |
| camera | Hal Mohr |
| cut | Robert Carlisle |
| occupation | |
| |
The last warning is a 1928 American silent film crime thriller in the form of a horror story with horror film elements. It was the last production by the German film architect and director Paul Leni . The main roles are played by Laura La Plante and Montagu Love . The story is based on the Roman House of Fear by Wadsworth Camp and the theater play The Last Warning by Thomas F. Fallon developed from it .
action
The Broadway actor John Woodford is killed during a performance by power. A little later his body disappears. A chloroform-like liquid is found and rumor has it that Woodford was involved in a menage-à-trois. However, no real motive for the attack is discovered. In the next five years, during which the theater was closed, attempts were made in vain to solve this mysterious case. Eventually, producer Mike Brody opens the venue with the same piece. In this way he wants to find out how this terrible attack came about. During the rehearsals there are again mysterious processes: Inexplicable noises penetrate the still empty theater, backdrops fall down and a local fire suddenly breaks out. A stranger also steals the wallet of the new leading actress Doris Terry.
Stage master Josiah Bunce receives a telegram warning him to retire from the play and Arthur McHugh, the new theater owner, is haunted by the ghost of John Woodford. During the dress rehearsal, in turn, Doris' colleague Harvey Carleton disappears during a power failure, and Doris for a moment sees a masked, eerie figure and another man who looks a lot like the supposedly dead John Woodford. Both men disappear as quickly as they appeared. As one investigates these incidents, some actors discover a lever behind a picture that opens a secret trapdoor. Harvey is found, and Arthur McHugh and actor Richard Quayle follow a secret tunnel that leads directly to Doris' dressing room.
On the evening of the premiere, theater director McHugh called in several police officers to ensure the safety of the guests and the artists during the performance. Even during the premiere, you discover a power line wire that can chase 400 volts into a candlestick. Richard, who is supposed to reach there in the final scene, is prevented from doing so by McHugh at the last moment. Soon the great stranger is discovered who is hiding in a grandfather clock belonging to the piece. The eerie masked man shoots one of the intervening police officers, then the perpetrator slides down through the open trap door. The man tries to escape, throws a lifelike Woodford doll at his pursuers and climbs up the theater frame. He swings through the air with a theater rope, but falls when the rope is unceremoniously cut by a stage worker. The stage master Josiah, the mastermind behind the attacks, turns out to be a villain. He acted on behalf of a major shareholder in the theater who did not want the stage to be used.
Production notes
The Final Warning was written at Universal Studios in 1928 and premiered on January 6, 1929. The Austrian premiere was on May 24, 1929, the German premiere in August of the same year.
Carl Laemmle junior supervised the production, Charles D. Hall designed the film structures.
A Movietone version was also made of this film, i.e. a version with sound noises.
useful information
On Broadway, the play The Last Warning ran from October 24, 1922 to May 1923 on a total of 238 evenings.
Joe May made a remake in 1939 called The House of Fear .
Reviews
Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times located "some well-staged passages" but criticized the uncontrolled use of tones and screams. Variety's Sid Silverman, on the other hand, praised the sound effects, which "evoke screams just enough to keep the movie-crazy people going."
Paimann's film lists summed up: "Despite the fantastic and bizarre details, an interesting and extremely exciting subject, whose main roles are cast by an excellent ensemble, on which the director ... puts his stamp."
Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be “a stylish comedy thriller with all the usual ingredients of a crime novel”.
Web links
- The final warning in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ The Last Warning on Internet Broadway Database
- ^ Review of January 7, 1929
- ↑ Critique of January 9, 1929, p. 44
- ↑ The last warning in Paimann's film lists ( memento of the original from August 3, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 584
