By Richard Harland Smith
The Florentine Dagger
Brief Synopsis
A playwright descended from the Borgias becomes a murder suspect.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Robert Florey
Director
Donald Woods
[Juan] Cesare
Margaret Lindsay
Florence [Ballau]
C. Aubrey Smith
Dr. [Gerard] Lytton
Henry O'neill
Victor Ballau
Robert Barrat
The Captain
Film Details
Genre
Suspense/Mystery
Release Date
Mar
30,
1935
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
The Vitaphone Corp.; Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel The Florentine Dagger by Ben Hecht (New York, 1928).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 10m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Synopsis
Three strangers, Victor Ballau, a Viennese theatrical producer, Dr. Gerard Lytton, a British doctor lately of Vienna; and Juan Casare, an Italian from Rome, arrive in a city that is overlooked by the castle of the Borgias. As the last of the Borgias, Juan is convinced that his family's bad blood will drive him to murder and tries to kill himself with poison. He is interrupted by Lytton, who reveals that the pharmacist from whom he obtained the poison substituted salt for poison. Lytton begs Juan to return with him to Vienna to write a play about the Borgias as a cure for his obsession. Juan does write the play, and Ballau agrees to produce it, but they cannot find an actress to play Lucretia, until Ballau's daughter Florence returns home. The play is a success and Juan falls in love with Florence. When he asks for her hand, however, Victor refuses his permission, reminding Juan of what happened in Italy. Depressed, Juan spends the evening drinking. He returns to the theater only to find that Florence has been called home in the middle of the play. Juan hurries to Ballau's house and finds him dead, stabbed with one of three Florentine daggers once owned by the Borgias. At first Juan thinks that he killed Ballau in a drunken moment. Then suspicion falls on Florence, although she appears to have no motive. Juan begs the doctor to help prove her innocence. They trace Florence to a mask shop. There, they find out that she was not Ballau's daughter, but his stepdaughter and that her mother, an actress who supposedly burned to death in a fire, is actually alive. Her badly scarred face covered by a lifelike mask, she worked as Ballau's housekeeper, Teresa, and killed him to save her daughter from his advances. Believing that she has suffered enough, Juan and Florence escape with her to Italy.
Director
Robert Florey
Director
Cast
Donald Woods
[Juan] Cesare
Margaret Lindsay
Florence [Ballau]
C. Aubrey Smith
Dr. [Gerard] Lytton
Henry O'neill
Victor Ballau
Robert Barrat
The Captain
Florence Fair
Teresa
Frank Reicher
Von Stein
Charles Judels
Salvatore
Rafaela Ottiano
Lili Salvatore
Paul Porcasi
Antonio
Eily Malyon
Fredericka
Egon Brecher
Karl
Herman Bing
The baker
Henry Kolker
Auctioneer
Adrian Rosley
Pasquale
Charles Fallon
Apothecary
Ruthelma Stevens
Fraulein von Elsner
Betty Farrington
Frieda
David Newell
Rodrige
Russ Powell
Taxi driver
Walter Bonn
Bartender
William Jeffrey
Editor
William Wagner
Coroner
Barlowe Borland
Janitor
Olaf Hytten
Radio operator
Wheaton Chambers
Servant
William V. Mong
Fishback
Frederick Sullivan
Romberg
Bernard Suss
Heinrien
Carlos J. De Valdez
Conductor
Ferdinand Schumann-heink
Otto
Eric Mayne
Bidder
Anders Van Haden
Bidder
Glen Cavender
Second detective
Paul Panzer
First detective
Louise Seidel
Baker's daughter
Frank Thornton
William Irving
Crew
Film Details
Genre
Suspense/Mystery
Release Date
Mar
30,
1935
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
The Vitaphone Corp.; Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel The Florentine Dagger by Ben Hecht (New York, 1928).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 10m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Articles
The Florentine Dagger -
This Warner Brothers-Vitaphone "Clue Club Picture" is based on a 1923 novel by journalist-turned-playwright-turned-screenwriter Ben Hecht (The Front Page) and is among the first Hollywood films - alongside Dracula's Daughter (1936), Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), and Anatole Litvak's The Snake Pit (1948) - to incorporate into its standard (genre) operating procedure a nod to psychoanalysis. Adapted by the director (Robert Florey) and writer (Tom Reed) team responsible for Universal's Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), this Vienna-set whodunit stars Donald Woods (later a one-shot Perry Mason for Warners) as the last descendant of the Borgias, who has convinced himself that he has inherited an inclination towards murder. Failing a suicide attempt, Woods is persuaded to work through his anxieties via live theatre, leading to a romantic entanglement with actress Margaret Lindsey, whose domineering father falls victim to The Florentine Dagger (1935). C. Aubrey Smith, Robert Barrat, and Florence Flair lend colorful support to this mystery thriller with creepy Gothic blandishments. Writer Reed had written the intertitles for Universal's The Phantom of the Opera (1925), making it no surprise that a key plot point of The Florentine Dagger is a lifelike mask that hides the hideously scarred face of the real killer. Robert Florey would expand upon that device yet again in The Face Behind the Mask (1941), starring Peter Lorre as an immigrant driven by deformity to a life of crime.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
The Florentine Dagger -
This Warner Brothers-Vitaphone "Clue Club Picture" is based on a 1923 novel by journalist-turned-playwright-turned-screenwriter Ben Hecht (The Front Page) and is among the first Hollywood films - alongside Dracula's Daughter (1936), Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), and Anatole Litvak's The Snake Pit (1948) - to incorporate into its standard (genre) operating procedure a nod to psychoanalysis. Adapted by the director (Robert Florey) and writer (Tom Reed) team responsible for Universal's Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), this Vienna-set whodunit stars Donald Woods (later a one-shot Perry Mason for Warners) as the last descendant of the Borgias, who has convinced himself that he has inherited an inclination towards murder. Failing a suicide attempt, Woods is persuaded to work through his anxieties via live theatre, leading to a romantic entanglement with actress Margaret Lindsey, whose domineering father falls victim to The Florentine Dagger (1935). C. Aubrey Smith, Robert Barrat, and Florence Flair lend colorful support to this mystery thriller with creepy Gothic blandishments. Writer Reed had written the intertitles for Universal's The Phantom of the Opera (1925), making it no surprise that a key plot point of The Florentine Dagger is a lifelike mask that hides the hideously scarred face of the real killer. Robert Florey would expand upon that device yet again in The Face Behind the Mask (1941), starring Peter Lorre as an immigrant driven by deformity to a life of crime.
By Richard Harland Smith
