The Crooked Billet Explained

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.

Cast

Reprise

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]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Crooked Billet . https://web.archive.org/web/20090114015650/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/61017 . dead . 14 January 2009 . British Film Institute . 3 January 2013.
  2. Book: Historical Dictionary of British Spy Fiction . Alan . Burton . Lanham, Maryland . . 4 April 2016 . 9781442255869.
  3. Book: History of British Film 1918 1929 . History of British Film . 4 . Rachael, Editor . Low . 170, 205, 352 . . 2013 . 9781136206405.
  4. Web site: The Crooked Billet / BFI Most Wanted . https://web.archive.org/web/20120803093104/http://old.bfi.org.uk/nationalarchive/news/mostwanted/crooked-billet.html . dead . 3 August 2012 . British Film Institute . 25 May 2014.
  5. Web site: Crooked Billet (3D) . 8 November 2017 . IMDb. 1 January 2019.
  6. Web site: Crooked Billet II (2018) . 16 December 2018 . . 1 January 2019.
  7. Web site: About CROOKED BILLET the Yorkshire Feature Film . 1 January 2019.