The Devil Plays
About The Devil Plays
Guests at a mansion are playing a murder game when Jerry Murdock is stabbed for real. Mystery writer Harry Forrest works the case with Inspector Brown. The Quincys have been dosed with sleeping powder. Dolores Quincy is later stabbed with the same knife. Missing money and letters point to Dick Quincy, who is arrested for the murders.
Cast & crew
More about The Devil Plays
Richard Thorpe directed Arthur Hoerl’s script. Chesterfield released it on 15 December 1931. It runs 63 minutes. This catalog record dates it 1921; the film is the 1931 pre-Code mystery. In Britain it was called The Murdock Affair. Jameson Thomas is Harry Forrest. Florence Britton is Diana Amberson. Thomas E. Jackson is Inspector Brown. Richard Tucker is Gerald Murdock. Edmund Burns is Dick Quincy. Dorothy Christy is Dolores Quincy.
Themes
Making
Thorpe’s Chesterfield mystery starts as a parlor game and keeps the same knife for the second killing. Hoerl’s solution is money and letters, not a supernatural devil.
Notes
- Lillian Rich and Robert Ellis play Grace Stiles and Stiles. Lew Kelly is Snyder. Carmelita Geraghty is Rita Kane.
- Murdock MacQuarrie is the butler. Jack Trent is Duncan.
- The game and the real stabbing use the same party.
- The British title drops the devil and names Murdock.
Scenes
- The game is still on when Murdock is stabbed.
- Dolores Quincy dies on the same knife.
- The letters and the missing money end with Dick Quincy’s arrest.
