| The Crooked Billet | |
| Starring: | Madeleine Carroll Carlyle Blackwell Miles Mander Gordon Harker |
| Music: | Louis Levy |
| Cinematography: | Claude L. McDonnell |
| Studio: | Gainsborough Pictures |
| Distributor: | Woolf & Freedman Film Service |
| Runtime: | 82 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | Sound Part-Talkie English Intertitles |
The Crooked Billet is a 1929 British sound part-talkie drama film directed by Adrian Brunel and starring Madeleine Carroll, Carlyle Blackwell and Miles Mander.[1] It was released in both silent and sound versions, as its production came as the industry was shifting over.[2] It was made by Gainsborough Pictures at their Islington Studios. The sound version features some sequences with audible dialogue. The rest of the film featured English intertitles with a synchronized musical score and sound effects.
It was one of the first films to use RCA's synchronized sound system for dialogue.[3]
The plot has been summarized as: "An international spy searches for lost documents hidden in an old inn."
It is listed on the British Film Institute's 75 Most Wanted list of lost films.[4] The film surfaced in France in December 2021 but the BFI refused to pay the asking price, so the only known 16mm copy is owned by a French individual.
An identically titled film with a similar theme was released in 2017.[5] A sequel was released in 2018,[6] and a third feature is planned.[7]