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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. It was released in both silent and sound versions, as its production came as the industry was shifting over. 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.

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. 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

• Carlyle Blackwell as Dietrich Hebburn
• Madeleine Carroll as Joan Easton
• Miles Mander as Guy Morrow
• Gordon Harker as Slick
• Kim Peacock as Philip Easton
• Danny Green as Rogers
• Frank Goldsmith as Sir William Easton
• Alexander Field as Alf

Reprise

An identically titled film with a similar theme was released in 2017. A sequel was released in 2018, and a third feature is planned.

References

1. "The Crooked Billet". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
2. Burton, Alan (4 April 2016). Historical Dictionary of British Spy Fiction. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442255869.
3. Low, Rachael, Editor (2013). History of British Film 1918 – 1929. Vol. 4. Routledge. pp. 170, 205, 352. ISBN 9781136206405. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help); |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. ^ "The Crooked Billet / BFI Most Wanted". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
5. "Crooked Billet (3D)". 8 November 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2019 – via IMDb.
6. "Crooked Billet II (2018)". 16 December 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2019 – via IMDb.
7. "About CROOKED BILLET the Yorkshire Feature Film". Retrieved 1 January 2019.

External links

• The Crooked Billet at IMDb

This article related to a British film of the 1920s is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
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• 1929 films
• 1929 drama films
• British drama films
• Films directed by Adrian Brunel
• Gainsborough Pictures films
• Islington Studios films
• Lost British films
• British black-and-white films
• 1929 lost films
• Lost British drama films
• 1920s English-language films
• 1920s British films
• Films scored by Louis Levy
• Part-talkie films
• 1920s British film stubs