The Crooked Billet
| The Crooked Billet | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Adrian Brunel |
| Written by | Angus MacPhail |
| Produced by | Michael Balcon |
| Starring | Madeleine Carroll Carlyle Blackwell Miles Mander Gordon Harker |
| Cinematography | Claude L. McDonnell |
| Music by | Louis Levy |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Woolf & Freedman Film Service |
Release date |
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Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Languages | Sound Part-Talkie English Intertitles |
The Crooked Billet is a 1929 British sound part-talkie drama film directed by Adrian Brunel and starring Madeleine Carroll, Carlyle Blackwell and Miles Mander. It was released in both silent and sound versions, as its production came as the industry was shifting over. It was made by Gainsborough Pictures at their Islington Studios. The sound version features some sequences with audible dialogue. The rest of the film featured English intertitles with a synchronized musical score and sound effects.
It was one of the first films to use RCA's synchronized sound system for dialogue.
The plot has been summarized as: "An international spy searches for lost documents hidden in an old inn."
It is listed on the British Film Institute's 75 Most Wanted list of lost films. The film surfaced in France in December 2021 but the BFI refused to pay the asking price, so the only known 16mm copy is owned by a French individual.