Seven Keys to Baldpate
About Seven Keys to Baldpate
George Washington Magee bets $5,000 that he can write a novel in twenty-four hours. He is given what he is told is the only key to the closed Baldpate Inn. Other people arrive, each with a key. Two hundred thousand dollars goes into the safe, a woman is shot, and her body later vanishes. Secret Service men march the crooks away. The next night the caretaker congratulates Magee, and a woman reporter gives in to him.
Cast & crew
More about Seven Keys to Baldpate
Hugh Ford directed. George M. Cohan produced it and plays Magee. Artcraft, a Paramount affiliate, released it in the United States on 17 October 1917. It comes from Cohan's 1913 play and Earl Derr Biggers's 1913 novel. A 1916 film of the play already existed.
Themes
Background
A 1917 Artcraft silent, one of several film versions of the Baldpate play. The 1929 RKO sound version with Richard Dix came later.
Making
Cohan produced the picture and took the lead himself, four years after the Broadway play.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Anna Q. Nilsson plays Mary Norton. Hedda Hopper plays Myra Thornhill under her own name, Elda Furry.
- The bet is $5,000. The money in the safe is $200,000.
- Cohan had starred in his own play. This is his silent film of it.
- A print survives and has circulated on home video.
Scenes
- Magee is handed the 'only' key and starts to write.
- A woman is shot and the body disappears.
- The caretaker returns the next night and congratulates him.
Influenced by
- Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913 novel)
- Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913 play)
Influenced
- Seven Keys to Baldpate (1929)
