By Richard Harland Smith
Conspiracy
Brief Synopsis
A brother and sister take on the drug ring that caused their father's death.
Cast & Crew
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Christy Cabanne
Director
Bessie Love
Margaret Holt
Ned Sparks
Winthrop Clavering
Hugh Trevor
John Howell
Rita La Roy
Nita Strong
Ivan Lebedeff
Butch Miller
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Release Date
Jan
1930
Premiere Information
release: Mar or 10 Aug 1930
Production Company
RKO Productions
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Conspiracy by Robert Melville Baker, John Emerson (New York, 1913).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 9m
Sound
Mono (RCA Photophone System)
Color
Black and White
Film Length
6,480ft
(7 reels)
Synopsis
Margaret Holt and her brother Victor set out to smash a narcotics ring responsible for their father's death: Victor becomes a district attorney and weaves a net around the gang and its leader Marco, alias James Morton, while Margaret becomes Marco's secretary. Marco soon discovers her duplicity and is about to have his henchmen kill her brother when she stabs him with a paper cutter; but she is too late to save Victor. In desperation, she goes to apply for shelter and meets John Howell, a young reporter looking for a story, who promises to help. Winthrop Clavering, an eccentric author of mystery stories, employs Margaret as his secretary and unravels the truth about the murder. Meanwhile, Howell learns that Victor is being held prisoner by the gangsters. Learning the identity of Margaret, Clavering summons the gang to his apartment, where they are arrested; Howell rescues Victor and wins Margaret.
Director
Christy Cabanne
Director
Cast
Bessie Love
Margaret Holt
Ned Sparks
Winthrop Clavering
Hugh Trevor
John Howell
Rita La Roy
Nita Strong
Ivan Lebedeff
Butch Miller
Gertrude Howard
Martha
Otto Matieson
James Morton [Marco]
Jane Keckley
Rose Towne
Donald Mackenzie
Captain McLeod
George Irving
Mark Holt
Bert Moorehouse
Victor Holt
Walter Long
Weinberg
Crew
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Release Date
Jan
1930
Premiere Information
release: Mar or 10 Aug 1930
Production Company
RKO Productions
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Conspiracy by Robert Melville Baker, John Emerson (New York, 1913).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 9m
Sound
Mono (RCA Photophone System)
Color
Black and White
Film Length
6,480ft
(7 reels)
Articles
Conspiracy -
Fans of the perpetually eighth-billed Ned Sparks will enjoy this earlier star turn for the horse-faced, cigar-chomping character actor, who brought a dyspeptic joie de vivre to such pre-Code classics as Blessed Event (1932), 42nd Street (1933), and Golddiggers of 1933 (1933). The character of Winthrop Clavering, a reclusive New York writer of pulp fiction who strays from his comfort zone to aid victims of a murderous narcotics ring, had taken his first steps on Broadway, as the unlikely hero of a hit play penned by John Emerson (husband of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes author Anita Loos) and Robert Baker. Famous Players Lasky and director Allan Dwan adapted the material for pictures as The Conspiracy (1914), which starred Emerson as Clavering. The film's success prompted a follow-up, The Flying Torpedo (1916), a more action-oriented case for Winthrop Clavering (played once more by Emerson), who is tasked with saving America from an invasive foreign power. RKO Radio Pictures production of The Conspiracy (1930) marked the studio's transition from silent to talking films and represented something like a family affair. Bessie Love, a bit player in The Flying Torpedo), was cast as the film's leading lady while Christy Cabanne, a former assistant to D. W. Griffith and overseer of The Flying Torpedo's battle scenes, was put into the director's chair. Sadly, this remake was a money-loser for RKO, who recorded a net loss of $50,000, and any notions of rebooting The Flying Torpedo with Sparks reprising the role of Winthrop Clavering never got off the ground.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Conspiracy -
Fans of the perpetually eighth-billed Ned Sparks will enjoy this earlier star turn for the horse-faced, cigar-chomping character actor, who brought a dyspeptic joie de vivre to such pre-Code classics as Blessed Event (1932), 42nd Street (1933), and Golddiggers of 1933 (1933). The character of Winthrop Clavering, a reclusive New York writer of pulp fiction who strays from his comfort zone to aid victims of a murderous narcotics ring, had taken his first steps on Broadway, as the unlikely hero of a hit play penned by John Emerson (husband of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes author Anita Loos) and Robert Baker. Famous Players Lasky and director Allan Dwan adapted the material for pictures as The Conspiracy (1914), which starred Emerson as Clavering. The film's success prompted a follow-up, The Flying Torpedo (1916), a more action-oriented case for Winthrop Clavering (played once more by Emerson), who is tasked with saving America from an invasive foreign power. RKO Radio Pictures production of The Conspiracy (1930) marked the studio's transition from silent to talking films and represented something like a family affair. Bessie Love, a bit player in The Flying Torpedo), was cast as the film's leading lady while Christy Cabanne, a former assistant to D. W. Griffith and overseer of The Flying Torpedo's battle scenes, was put into the director's chair. Sadly, this remake was a money-loser for RKO, who recorded a net loss of $50,000, and any notions of rebooting The Flying Torpedo with Sparks reprising the role of Winthrop Clavering never got off the ground.
By Richard Harland Smith
