Underplayed Gems

The Bells (1926)

The Bells poster
Directed by
James Young
Genre
silent film, crime film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 08m
Rated
NR
Rating
6.2 of 10 from 19 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like this

How it feels

A man is haunted by guilt after committing a crime. The story follows his psychological unraveling as past secrets threaten to surface.

silenttheatricalhistoricalgloomyslow-burnsuspensefulpsychologicalnoir-tinged

What happens

The Bells is a 1926 American silent crime film directed by James Young and starring Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff. It was based on an 1867 French stage play called Le Juif Polonais (The Polish Jew) by Erckmann-Chatrian. The play was translated to English in 1871 by Leopold Lewis at which time it was retitled The Bells. The English version of the play was performed in the U.S. in the 19th century by Sir Henry Irving. Le Juif Polonais was also adapted into an opera of the same name in three acts by Camille Erlanger, composed to a libretto by Henri Cain. The play was adapted into a number of film adaptations; an Australian film in 1911 directed by W. J. Lincoln, a 1913 American film directed by Oscar Apfel, a 1918 American film The Bells (1918 film) directed by Ernest C. Warde, a 1925 British-Belgian film (aka Le juif polonais) directed by Harry Southwell, the 1926 Hollywood film starring Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff, and a British film in 1931 which starred Donald Caltrop as Mathias. Harry Southwell remade the film again later in Australia as The Burgomeister (1935). Footage from The Bells (1926) was re-used in two short films: The Mesmerist, and Light Is Calling by Bill Morrison. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.