The Spider
Cast & Crew
William C. Menzies
Edmund Lowe
Lois Moran
El Brendel
John Arledge
George E. Stone
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
At the end of his magic show at the Tivoli theater, Chatrand the Great announces over a radio broadcast that he is trying to establish the identity of a victim of amnesia, his assistant who goes by the name of Alexander. Found unconscious with a head wound two years earlier in the streets of Washington, Alexander, now a mind reader in the act, cannot remember anything about his previous life. Beverly Lane, whose brother Paul disappeared two years earlier, listens intently to her radio, but her uncle, financier John Carrington, calls the announcment a cheap publicity stunt. When Beverly insists on going to the theater, Carrington accompanies her. Before his performance, Chatrand, upon seeing Beverly through the stage curtains, recognizes her from a picture in the locket Alexander carries. He has always wanted to meet the woman in the picture. During the act, Chatrand blindfolds Alexander and has him describe objects belonging to members of the audience and answer their questions. When Chatrand asks Alexander to describe Beverly's locket, which is identical to Alexander's, Carrington protests and struggles with Chatrand. Sonya, Chatrand's assistant, pulls a light switch. In the dark, a hand wearing a spider ring fires a gun, and Carrington falls. The police soon arrive and keep the audience from leaving, as a man from the audience, Dr. Blackstone, attends to Carrington. After Inspector Riley finds a gun beside Alexander, who is unconscious, Chatrand removes Alexander's mask. Beverly then embraces him and identifies him as her lost brother. Chatrand brings Alexander out of his trance, and upon seeing Beverly, Alexander exclaims, "He tried to kill me; I had to do it!" Treating this as a confession, Riley has Alexander and Beverly taken to the theater manager's office, while he keeps Chatrand under observation. Chatrand, however, escapes into a casket and then through a trap door. Alexander tells Beverly that two years earlier Carrington attempted to steal all their money, and that when Carrington tried to kill him, he fell, precipitating his amnesia. Chatrand then finds out that Carrington had been receiving telephone calls from someone who lost a great deal of money to him. When Riley learns that Carrington has died, he arrests Alexander for first-degree murder. Chatrand, however, convinces Riley to let him conduct a séance before the audience is allowed to leave to try to make the murderer betray himself. During the séance, as Chatrand's image appears before the audience, and Carrington, speaking through Chatrand, threatens to name his murderer, a shot breaks the mirror which is conveying the image. Chatrand next has Alexander, in the guise of a mind reader, attempt to "find" the mind of the murderer. After he reveals a number of dark secrets in the minds of some members of the audience, Alexander says that the murderer wears a spider ring, and he names the row in which the murderer is sitting. As he is about to reveal the murderer's seat number, a shot rings out. Dr. Blackstone, who hysterically says that Carrington deserved death for ruining a savings bank and turning his family and thousands of others into paupers, is apprehended. Chatrand, who suffered a wound to his arm, is attended to by Beverly, who has grown fond of him.
Cast
Edmund Lowe
Lois Moran
El Brendel
John Arledge
George E. Stone
Earle Foxe
Manya Roberti
Howard Phillips
Purnell Pratt
Jesse De Vorska
Kendall Mccomas
Ruth Donnelly
William Pawley
Warren Hymer
Ward Bond
C. A. Bachman
Anders Von Haden
Raymonda Brown
Marguerite Caverley
Doris Morton
Lee Kinney
Pat Haley
John Lester Johnson
Robert Kerr
Charles Wheelock
Anita Wilson
Doris Campbell
Bond Davis
Irene Dale
June De Vaney
Eleanor Frances
Mel S. Forrester
Baldy Belmont
Violet Bird
Marie Stapleton
Morris Selvage
Jerry Storm
Margaret Mayo
Dorothy Mclaughlin
James Mcpherson
Ruth Magden
George Milo
Walter Lawrence
Helen Long
Helen Lambert
Richard French
Rupert Franklin
Peggy Graham
Jimmy Gray
Jenny Gray
Frank Henry
Charles Hammond
Samuel E. Hines
Caryl Lincoln
Charline Burt
Crew
Alfred Bruzlin
Barry Conners
Al De Gaetano
Carli Elinor
Leon Gordon
James Howe
Philip Klein
Albert Lewis
R. L. Selander
William Sistrom
Gordon Wiles
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, the play was based in part on the short story "The Man with the Miracle Mind" by Samri Finkelle, pseudonym of Fulton Oursler. The working title of this film was The Midnight Cruise. In 1945, Twentieth Century-Fox released another film based on the same source, directed by Robert Webb and starring Richard Conte.
