The Rogues' Tavern

1936 HorrorThriller 70 minutes Directed by Robert F. Hill

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About The Rogues' Tavern

Detective Jimmy Kelly and Marjorie Burns reach the Red Rock Tavern in a storm, planning to marry as soon as a justice of the peace arrives. Guests die of throat wounds that look like a wild dog's, the telephone line is cut, and bars drop over the windows. The remaining guests admit they are jewel smugglers. Marjorie finds a wolf mask with false teeth in the room of Jamison, the innkeeper who has been using a wheelchair, and he confesses. Jimmy does not believe the motive. In the basement a phonograph plays a threat from Mrs. Jamison, and a hidden room shows the real scheme: years earlier the smugglers framed her sister, who killed herself. Jimmy stops Mrs. Jamison from finishing the killings, and he and Marjorie marry.

Cast & crew

More about The Rogues' Tavern

Robert F. Hill directed Al Martin's original screenplay for producer Sam Katzman. William Hyer photographed it and Dan Milner edited it. Puritan Pictures released it on June 4, 1936; Pathé handled it in some markets.

Themes

  • a wedding night turned into a locked-room killing
  • a dog blamed for a blade
  • smugglers who sent for the wrong man
  • a sister's suicide as motive
  • Red Rock Tavern
  • Jimmy Kelly
  • jewel smugglers
  • wolf mask
  • wheelchair
  • phonograph
  • Mrs. Jamison

Making

The Red Rock Tavern set has to do all the work: a cut phone line, a burned fuse, barred windows, and a basement record that speaks for the missing wife.

Look

William Hyer shot the tavern interiors, dropping the lights for the killing of Mason and bringing them back once the dog has been ruled out.

Preservation

A complete print is in circulation and the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Notes

  • Wallace Ford and Barbara Pepper play the couple who came to be married. Joan Woodbury is Gloria Robloff, Clara Kimball Young is Mrs. Jamison, and Jack Mulhall is Bill.
  • John Elliott plays Mr. Jamison. Arthur Loft is Wentworth, the man the smugglers think summoned them.
  • The dog in the picture is credited as Silver Wolf.
  • Earl Dwire plays Morgan, the inventor Wentworth had financed, whose name comes out in Jamison's confession.
  • An Australian release is also listed at 70 minutes.

Scenes

  • Jimmy leashes the tavern dog and brings it inside, then watches another man die, which clears the animal.
  • Marjorie finds the wolf mask and the false teeth in Jamison's dresser, and sees him walk.
  • In the basement the group hears Mrs. Jamison's threats on a phonograph record wired by Morgan.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (The_Rogues_Tavern)