This week’s mystery movie was the 1935 film Mystery of Edwin Drood, with Claude Rains, Douglass Montgomery, Heather Angel, Valerie Hobson, David Manners, Francis L. Sullivan, Zeffie Tillbury, Ethel Griffies, E.E. Clive, Walter Kingsford, Forrester Harvey, Vera Buckland, Elsa Buchanan, Georgie Ernest and J.M. Kerrigan.
Screenplay by John L. Balderston and Gladys Unger.
Adaptation by Bradley King and Leopold Atlas.
Art direction by Albert S. D’Agostino.
Photography by George Robinson.
Musical score by Edward Ward.
Technical advisor Hilda Grenier.
Special effects by John P. Fulton.
Edited by Edward Curtiss.
Associate producer Edmund Grainger.
Directed by Stuart Walker.
Further information on Mystery of Edwin Drood is available from the AFI Catalog.
Mystery of Edwin Drood is available on DVD from Critics’ Choice Videos. Kino offers a restored version on Blu-ray.
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I picked Mystery of Edwin Drood by going through the trades. It’s a fine film and has only aired once on TCM, in 2012, making it an excellent mystery movie. The visuals by themselves make the film worth watching. This would be too early for Bosley Crowther, so I’m guessing we’re firmly in Mordaunt Hall territory.
Wrong! Andre Sennwald! (The New York Times, March 21, 1935):
Edwin Drood is dead. John Jasper strangled him while the great storm raged on Christmas Eve and buried the body in quicklime in the crypt below the cathedral. Mr. Datchery, the strange bearded man who might have been Grewgious or Mr. Crisparkle or — a fascinating possibility — Edwin Drood himself, was actually young Neville Landless, whom Jasper accused of the crime. Thus have John L Balderston and Gladys Unger resolved the mystery which went to the grave with Dickens sixty-fix years ago.
For Monday, we have a mystery woman.
Update: This is Zeffie Tilbury.
For “Tricky Tuesday,” we have a mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Douglass Montgomery in old man makeup. A perfect image for “Tricky Tuesday.”
Brain Trust roll call: Howard Mandelbaum (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery woman) and Sheila (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery woman).
Note to Robert Morrissey, Megan and Thom: She’s in the movie, but in a different role.
For “Hm Wednesday,” we have this mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Walter Kingsford.
Brain Trust roll call: Howard Mandelbaum (Tuesday’s mysterious guest), Robert Morrissey (mystery movie and Tuesday’s mysterious guest) and Sheila (Tuesday’s mysterious guest).
For “Aha Thursday,” we have this mystery woman.
Update: This is Veda Buckland.
We also have this mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Douglass Montgomery, sans old man makeup.
And finally, this mystery fellow. Possibly the most mysterious mystery guest the movieland mystery photo has ever had! And Back of the Head Woman.
Update: This is David Manners and Heather Angel as Back of the Head Woman.
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (mystery movie and all mystery guests), Howard Mandelbaum (Wednesday’s mystery guest), Mike Hawks (mystery movie and all mystery guests) and Sheila (Wednesday’s mystery guest).
For Friday, we have a couple of mysterious women.
Update: This is Heather Angel, left, and Valerie Hobson.
And a mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Claude Rains.
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Thursday’s mystery men and Back of the Head Woman), Howard Mandelbaum (Thursday’s mystery guests and Back of the Head Woman), Mike Hawks (Thursday’s mystery men and Back of the Head Woman) and Suzanne Annette Stone (Monday’s mystery woman and Thursday’s most mysterious mystery man).
ladailymirror.com 
I’m guessing again: STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT (1945)?
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Zeffie Tilbury in THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (1935).
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Zeffie Tilbury, ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’?
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That’s the wonderful Ethel Griffies.
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Monday’s mystery woman sure resembles Ethel Barrymore.
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Reminds me of Beulah Bondi. I don’t recall her being in anything scary though.
I’ll bide my time, I think.
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Veda Buckland; Douglass Montgomery; David Manners, Heather Angel.
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Lucille LaVerne?
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I think our mystery guest is Ethel Griffies.
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Douglass Montgomery.
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Aha! I just saw this movie last year….interesting tale of obsession. Today we have Douglass Montgomery in deep disguise in 1935’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
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Elsie Prescott in THE LITTLE MINISTER.
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Douglass Montgomery for Tuesday.
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You did another tricky Tuesday on us! THEMYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. Zeffie Tilbury Monday, Douglass Montgomery Tuesday, and Walter Kingsford today.
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Walter Kingsford.
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Zeffie Tilbury, Douglass Montgomery and Walter Kingsford in THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD.
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Walter Kingsford for Wednesday.
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Elsa Buchanan, Douglass Montgomery, David Manners, and BOTH Heather Angel.
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Douglass Montgomery, David Manners and Heather Angel.
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Zeffie Tilbury for Monday, David Manners today, perhaps with Gavin Gordon? No idea what movie it is….
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Heather Angel in age makeup Thursday, and Angel, Valerie Hobson, and Claude Rains today.
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Thank you Claude Rains.
Zeffie Tilbury
Douglass Montgomery in disguise
Walter Kingsford
Veda Buckland
Douglass Montgomery
David Manners (or Rauff de Ryther Duan Aklon for short) and BOTHW Heather Angel
Heather Angel and Valerie Hobson
Claude Rains
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Heather Angel, Valerie Hobson.
Claude Rains.
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My crystal ball has been foggy all week but it cleared enough to reveal Claude Rains on Friday. The two women on Friday resemble Fay Wray and Jane Baxter in The Clairvoyant.
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Heather Angel, Valerie Hobson and Claude Rains.
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Claude Rains! “Mystery of Edwin Drood”! But everyone already knows that now…
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