While London Sleeps is a 1926 Warner Bros. film about a police-dog, Rinty, who helps Scotland Yard defeat a dangerous criminal organisation known as the Mediterranean Brotherhood that operates out of the Limehouse district of London. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the Vitaphone sound-on-disc process. Walter Morosco wrote the screenplay. It was the first of many films directed by Howard Bretherton, and one of several created for Rin Tin Tin, a German Shepherd dog used in films during the 1920s and 1930s. Only the sound discs to the film survive today with the visual film portions being lost.[2][3] The British release prints censored the more horrific aspects of the film.[4]
| While London Sleeps | |
|---|---|
 Still from the film | |
| Directed by | Howard Bretherton |
| Written by | Walter Morosco |
| Starring | Rin Tin Tin Helene Costello Walter Merrill |
| Cinematography | Frank Kesson |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 66 minutes 52 minutes (edited British print) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English Intertitles) |
| Budget | $119,000[1] |
| Box office | $332,000[1] |
George Kotsonaros only appeared in two horror films, this one and The Wizard (1927), and he played a beast-man in both movies. He died in a car accident in Alabama in 1933.[4]
Plot
editInspector Burke of Scotland Yard concentrates all his forces on the capture of London Letter, a notorious criminal leader in the Limehouse district who possesses both Rinty, a splendid dog, and a man-beast monster called The Monk who ravages and kills at his master's command. Burke almost apprehends the gang in the midst of an attempted theft, but Rinty's uncanny perceptions foil Burke's coup, and Foster is killed for betraying the gang. When Rinty loses in a fight against another dog, Burke's daughter, Dale, rescues Rinty from London Letter's abuse, and he becomes devoted to his new mistress. At the criminal's order, the monster kidnaps Dale and imprisons her. Burke and his men wound London Letter while on his trail, and Rinty finds him dying. In a ferocious battle, Rinty kills the monster by tearing out his throat.
Cast
edit- Rin Tin Tin as Rinty
- Helene Costello as Dale Burke
- Walter Merrill as Thomas Hallard
- John Patrick as Foster
- Otto Matieson as London Letter
- George Kotsonaros as The Monk
- De Witt Jennings as Inspector Burke
- Carl Stockdale as Stokes
- Les Bates as Long Tom
Box office
editAccording to Warner Bros records the film earned $235,000 domestically and $97,000 foreign.[1]
Preservation status
editNo prints of this film are known to survive suggesting it is lost.[5] It is on the Lost Film Files list for missing Warner Bros., but the soundtrack survives intact on Vitaphone disks in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.[6]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 5 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
- ^ Soister, John T. (2004). Up from the Vault: Rare Thrillers of the 1920s and 1930s. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publ. pp. 50–56. ISBN 978-0-7864-1745-2.
- ^ "Silent Era : Progressive Silent Film List". www.silentera.com.
- ^ a b Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era. Midnight Marquee Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
- ^ "While London Sleeps / H.P Bretherton [motion picture]:Bibliographic Record Description: Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Library of Congress". Archived from the original on September 24, 2016. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
- ^ "Lost Film Files - Warner". www.silentsaregolden.com.