WalterFilm Online Photo Museum

These original stills are from the 1930 Paramount Spanish version of BENSON MURDER CASE which was released as EL CUERPO DEL DELITO. It was the practice at this time in early talking pictures, for selected studio films (this was the time before Foreign dubbing was practiced) to be filmed in several languages. It was decided that this story would play well in Spanish speaking countries. Therefore, at night, this version was filmed on the same sets as the American English version. In this instance, an entirely different cast, director and production team was assembled. Eumenio Blanco played in this version along with Maria Alba. Alba was known to Spanish and American audiences and the publicity campaign focused on her. In the role of femme fatale, Gene Richee took many glamorous and risqué, sexy portraits of her. All have his stamp on the versos. The images are highly risqué, even for the pre-code Hollywood era. This may be because they were distributed more so in the foreign territories and not in the United States. This makes this set of images extremely rare.

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The third and best (thanks to advancement in sound film making technology between 1929 and 1930) of the Paramount Philo Vance trilogy starring William Powell. The first two detective mysteries were THE CANARY MURDER CASE and THE GREENE MURDER CASE. Powell would play Vance one more time in Warner Brothers 1933 THE KENNEL MURDER CASE and then graduate to the great long running THIN MAN detective series at MGM. This collection consists of 20 of the finest publicity images from the film, including the finest portrait work of Powell by photographer Gene Robert Richee. Each of the stills bears his photography stamp on verso. These are quite possibly the best portraits ever taken of William Powell. Each captures the debonair sophistication of his portrayal of the famous sleuth. The sexy femme fatale with her slicked marceled hair, as portrayed by Natalie Moorhead is featured with Powell in two of the stills and in one silhouette still. The silhouette still is oddly numbered for the Spanish release version.

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Fantastically zany mish mash of music, comedy and social commentary, as only the Marx Bros. could present, and get a way with! Story of Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) who is named dictator of a bankrupt Fredonia. With his side kicks Pinky (Harpo Marx) and Chicolini (Chico Marx) he wrecks havoc and declares war with neighboring Sylvania, all over his love for the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont). Insane musical numbers and scenes of war, all satirizing the political state of the world at the time as Hitler came to power and war clouds fell over Europe represent the action of the story. Fast paced dialogue and slapstick humor which the brothers tested on the road in stage acts top the insanity. Much of the antics in the musical numbers were ad-libbed!

This is the masterpiece of the Marx Brothers in film comedy. The fourth brother Zeppo also partakes as the straight man. Raquel Torres appears as a sex pot in several pre-code gowns which gives Groucho, Chico and Harpo plenty of ammunition for sex play. Margaret Dumont, who many consider the real 4th Marx Brother puts up with the antics of Groucho with her astute dead pan! Louis Calhern plays the out-of-sorts Ambassador of Sylvania.

All these actors named appear in this collection of stills which represents much of the plot.

There is one behind the scenes still showing the courtroom set with Zeppo in front of the podium and the camera crew and lights. This still is damaged with the bottom left corner missing. One other un-numbered still is damaged, with the upper right corner missing. These two stills do add to the integrity of this group as an archive, but we have valued them at zero when pricing out this collection, due to their condition. All other stills are in near MINT condition.

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This superior version of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale was directed by the gifted Rouben Mamoulian. The atmospheric environment of a fog soaked Victorian London was created by Academy Award nominated Karl Struss (his work is evident in these stills). Mamoulian was applauded for his use of asynchronist sound, one of the first times in talking films in which the sound was utilized to reveal and tell a story without a matching visual. Frederic March was awarded the Academy Award as best actor for 1931.

There are (40) stills in this collection, representing much of the story, including several risqué pre code images of Miriam Hopkins as tragic bar maid Ivy. Much of the Dr.'s romance with Muriel Carew (Rose Hobart) is represented. Also featured in the images are Holmes Herbert as Dr. Lanyon, Halliwell Hobbes as Brig. Gen. Danvers Carew and Edgar Norton as Poole. Rare are images of March as Mr. Hyde. This grouping contains (4) images of the monster and one image of Jekyll transforming into Hyde.

The original stills are 8 x 10 single weight glossy silver gelatin prints.

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Collection of (77) single weight glossy silver gelatin original publicity prints from the files at Paramount Studios. A substantial collection of images from this highly collected horror classic based on the novel by H. G. Wells.

Story of an obsessed and insane scientist who conducts experiments of evolution on South Sea Island inhabitants. He creates a mutant half-human race which he makes from animals and acts as their demigod. This was Charles Laughton’s first American film role. His performance as the perverse Dr. Moreau gives the entire film a great feeling of creepiness and horror as does the super photography of Karl Struss and the Art Direction of Hans Dreier. Location shots were made on Catalina Island in Southern California. An unknown dental assistant, Kathleen Burke was cast as Lota the Panther Woman. Besides Laughton, the principal actors featured in the stills are Richard Arlen and Leila Hyams. Bela Lugosi played the leader of the mutant race, but few stills exist of him in character. Mack Elliott was still photographer.

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A very early talkie in this famous series. Though the stills display much action, the actual film was very static, it being an early venture for Paramount in the new filming format. The series featured Warner Oland (the Swedish born actor who was very famous for playing the Asian characters of Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan) as the venomous revenge seeking lead character. Jean Arthur was elevated to leading lady status and she and Neil Hamilton came back the next year for a sequel in the series, playing the same characters (RETURN OF DR. FU MANCHU). Included are several portraits of Oland as Manchu and many of Arthur and Hamilton (famous in advertising as the "Arrow Collar" man). Arthur was photographed from all sides at this time. A few years later, with star status, she would require being filmed from her left side only, sets being build around that requirement!

Many of the stills including the character portraits of Oland are stamped by photographer Eugene Richee.

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Warner Oland played Dr. Fu Manchu in both of these entries of the Fu Manchu filmed stories. MGM picked up the franchise for one film in 1932 in which Boris Karloff played the role. Other films using this character were made intermittently into the 1960's. Though of Swedish birth, Oland was able to play this Asian character, Charlie Chan and several other Asian characters without make-up. He attributed his appearance to his Russian grandmother who was of Mongolian descent. This film re-assembled the cast of the 1929 entry for further adventures of the vengeance seeking villain.

Also in the cast again are Jean Arthur and Neil Hamilton. Noteworthy are the vintage 1930 wedding scenes and costuming and the chillingly atmospheric lab and basement set of the evil Dr.

Many of the images, including all gallery shots and the three wedding gown portraits of Jean Arthur are stamped by photographer Eugene Richee. All are in excellent condition except those noted.

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(Twenty-six 8 x 10 double weight matte prints and three 7 x 9 single weight glossy RUSH prints)
from this classic MGM silent crime film with Lon Chaney. Chaney is in nearly all of the stills and this is a very rare collection.

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Set of 22 original vintage 6.5 x 8.5” double weight matt silver nitrate French stills. A virtually definitive collection of stills from Carl Dreyer’s dreamlike surrealist horror masterpiece. All have on the back the printed label “Film-Prouduction Carl Dreyer 42, Quai du Point-du-Jour Biallancourt-s/Seine PARIS presente Julian West comme David Grey dans le film “L’ETRANGE AVENTURE DE DAVID GRAY/THE STRANGE ADVENTURE OF DAVID GRAY/DAS SELTSAME ERLEBNIS DES DAVID GRAY.” Shot only in early morning in a crumbling chateau outside of Paris, VAMPYR (which was made in English, French, and German versions) is one of the classics of the early talking horror cinema, and virtually nothing is every available from it in the collector’s market.

This suite of magnificent images covers most of the film’s significant visuals, including the haunting image at beginning of a man with scythe, and (from the conclusion) the hero (David Gray) looking at himself dead in a coffin. Contributing to the film’s moodiness and sense of visual dread, it was shot in such a way as to look dreamlike, with all the outdoor scenes appearing misty, as if a heavy fog was just rolling in. These unusual and very rare stills deliberately echo the surreal cinematography.

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