Edgar Wallace Triumph As a Screen Story

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 31, 6 February 1935, Page 5

Edgar Wallace Triumph As a Screen Story

“THE RETURN OF THE TERROR”

BRINGS THRILLS

(Palace: Screening Saturday.)

More thrills and chills than have been packed into a single picture in many a long day are promised in the First National mystery drama, “The Return of the Terror.” The startling plot of the screen play is credited to the exciting novel by one of the greatest of all mystery writers, Edgar Wallace.

There is not just one mystery but many, beginning with a series of arsenic poisonings at a private sanitoriurn for which the superintendent is convicted and 'sent to an insane asylum and culminating with three more killings and two attempted murders at the same sanitorium in a night of terror after the superintendent has escaped from the asylum. Mary Astor heads the all star cast as the owner of the sanitorium where the mysterious poisonings take place, with John Halliday playing opposite her as the superintendent, and her sweetheart, who is convicted of tho arsenic crimes.

Others at the santorium on the night of the three strange killings, which happen under the very nose of tho police, include Lyle Talbot, the new superintendent, and members of the the owners; Frank McHugh, a reporter; Robert Barrat and George E. Stone, as two crooks in hiding; Irving Pichcl, their lawyer; J. Carroll Naish, in the role of a former attendant who had given damaging testimony against the superintendent, and memebers of the hospital staff. A navel twist is given to the baffling mystery through the vanishing and reappearance of the escaped prisoner at intervals through the terrifying night. He conceals himself under a flurex-ray lamp, the rays of which pass through the flesh and reveal the body as nothing more than a skeleton. There is a large supporting cast which includes Frank Reieher, Robert Emmet 0 ’Connor, Renee AVhitney, Etienne Girardot, Maude Eburne, Charles Grapewin, George Humbert and George Cooper. In addition to the baffling mystery and thrills there is a double romance, with considerable humour to relieve the tension.