Trick for Trick
Cast & Crew
Hamilton Macfadden
Ralph Morgan
Victor Jory
Sally Blane
Tom Dugan
Luis Alberni
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Six months after the body of Evelyn Maxwell, who was the assistant to the magician Azrah, is pulled out of a river, the detective assigned to the case, Jed Dobson, is still searching for clues. When he visits Azrah, whom he knew years before on Coney Island, the magician is conducting a séance for Mr. Russell and his daughter Constance. When Constance's fiancé, David Adams, arrives at Azrah's house, Azrah's partner, Albert Young, will not let him in, so David enters through an open window. When he finds Azrah, David says that he suspects him of killing Evelyn and produces an envelope containing cancelled checks from Azrah to Evelyn. With the help of his trick electrician, Metzger, Azrah creates an illusion that keeps David from confronting him any further. Young comes in and picks a fight with David, so that he can steal the cancelled checks. Jed then enters, but before he can question Azrah, La Tour, whom Evelyn had assisted prior to Azrah, arrives. Jed questions La Tour about Evelyn, but he says he knows nothing. Azrah overhears this and suggests that he conduct a séance that evening to get a confession from Evelyn's spirit. La Tour has his two henchmen, a hunchback and a Chinese man, kidnap Constance so that he can give Young money to sabotage Azrah's séance when the others go to rescue Constance. At the séance, after the guests are forced to relinquish their weapons, Azrah is tied to his chair to ensure that he does not leave when the lights go down. After the lights flash on and off, La Tour is found dead in Azrah's chair with a penknife through his heart. The knife belongs to Evelyn's father, who is disguised as a guest, Professor King. Azrah asks to continue with the séance and, with the help of his assistant Maisie Henry, tricks everyone with an illusion, using sound recordings of a conversation he had with Evelyn before her death. In the recordings, she confides that La Tour, who would not marry her, left her pregnant and penniless, and that she was then unable to return to her family. Evelyn's father, who was trying to kill Azrah because he thought that he was responsible for Evelyn's death, confesses to La Tour's murder, and he is arrested. Azrah goes on to explain that he knew all along that La Tour had killed Evelyn because he had originally sent the cancelled checks to La Tour knowing that he would have returned them to Azrah to protect him if he was innocent. Azrah reveals that La Tour, however, sent the checks to David in order to frame Azrah. Azrah then orders David to pay more attention to Constance, and the young couple embrace.
Director
Hamilton Macfadden
Cast
Ralph Morgan
Victor Jory
Sally Blane
Tom Dugan
Luis Alberni
Ed. Van Sloan
Willard Robertson
Dorothy Appleby
Boothe Howard
Clifford Jones
James Burtis
Adrian Morris
John George
Herbert Bunston
Jimmy Leong
Crew
Robert Bischoff
George Blair
Duncan Cramer
Howard J. Green
Bert Hanlon
Samuel Kaylin
William Lambert
William C. Menzies
L. W. O'connell
A. W. Protzman
Ben Ryan
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The onscreen credits were taken from a screen credit billing sheet in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department, and the plot was based on a screen continuity in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection, both of which are at the UCLA Theater Arts Library. The legal records indicate that Fulton Oursler was one of the writers of the play, but that he agreed that he would not receive screen credit; that the play was a rewritten version of a play entitled The Man of Magic; or Trick for Trick, copyrighted January 30, 1932, which was written by the authors credited onscreen; that Fox agreed not to release the film before October 15, 1932; and that Thomas Dugan, who acted in the film, contributed a few lines of dialogue, but that his contribution, in the words of producer Sol M. Wurtzel was "not enough to amount to anything." Variety commented, "Picture suggests that there has been a good deal of tampering with the script. A great deal happens that doesn't lead to anything...."
