The Avenger


1h 19m 1933

Film Details

Release Date
Aug 10, 1933
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Distribution Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel The Avenger by John Goodwin (New York, 1926).

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 19m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6,832ft (8 reels)

Synopsis

A distinguished gang of six high-finance racketeers, who include among themselves a judge, frame young assistant district attorney Norman Craig on a bribery charge after Craig gains evidence revealing their scheme to steal millions of dollars. His fiancée, Ruth Knowles, could save him by testifying that she spent the night with him, but she is advised against doing so. While Craig is in prison serving a twenty-year sentence, Ruth marries the leader of the gang, James Gordon, unaware of Gordon's part in the frame-up. When gang member Vickers becomes conscience-striken and threatens to reveal the frame-up, he is set up to be arrested on a robbery charge and sent to the same prison where Craig resides. They become friends, and after Vickers is shot during an escape attempt, he confesses the scheme on his deathbed. Craig is released because of the confession and promoted to first assistant district attorney. Although he knows who framed him, Craig is unable to prove his convictions. After the chief of police promises him absolute freedom for thirty days to obtain evidence, Craig assumes the identity of "The Avenger" and begins to terrorize the conspirators one by one using an airplane, Mills bombs (a type of hand grenade used by the Allies during World War I) and machine guns. Gordon kills one gang member, who shows signs of weakening, and after three others mysteriously disappear, Gordon, the only member left, is driven nearly insane with fear. When Gordon is found dead after Ruth has given him pills to calm him, Gordon's diary is found to reveal that Ruth still loves Craig. She is assumed to have killed her husband until Craig proves that Gordon committed suicide so that Ruth would be charged with murder. Although Ruth believes that Craig murdered Gordon, he abducts her and shows her that he has been keeping the three gang members who have disappeared imprisoned in a shack under an armed guard to obtain their confessions. After the gang are turned over to the police, Craig and Ruth are reunited.

Film Details

Release Date
Aug 10, 1933
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Distribution Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel The Avenger by John Goodwin (New York, 1926).

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 19m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6,832ft (8 reels)

Quotes

Trivia

This film is presumed lost. Please check your attic.

Notes

Ralph Forbes had been signed by Monogram to a contract to star in two films after his success in The Phantom Broadcast. Adrienne Ames was loaned from Paramount, where she was a featured player. She was, at the time, also featured in national advertising for Hellman's Mayonnaise, and Variety speculated that publicity concerning her recent divorce from Bruce Cabot, her third husband, could help the box office for this film. According to modern sources, the musical director was Abe Meyer, Wilson Benge played a butler, and adaptor Brown Holmes and cameraman Sid Hickox were both loaned from Warner Bros.