Secrets of the Night directed by Mr Alice Guy... Mystery. Comedy. A
murder in an old house where everyone is a suspect..."It's, dare I say,
more than rare — it is unique,
Film Found! Secrets of the Night directed by Mr Alice Guy Blache 1924
...A "Universal Jewel Production", Secrets of the Night is a spooky
murder mystery that in many ways prefigures the horror films the studio
would be making in a few short years. Leading man James Kirkwood began
his career in D.W. Griffith pictures such as A Corner in Wheat (1909)
and Home, Sweet Home (1914). Moving behind the camera, he became a
favorite of Mary Pickford's, directing her in Cinderella (1914)
and Fanchon the Cricket (1915). Despite this, he would continue acting
well into the 1950s. His son, James Kirkwood, Jr., was the Tony and
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Chorus Line. Considered "the greatest
dramatic actress" by Erich von Stroheim, ZaSu Pitts would star in the
director's epic Greed (1924) after completing this film. Finding the
transition to talkies difficult (her scenes in All Quiet on the Western
Front in 1930 were deleted), Pitts developed a spinster persona that
served her well in comedy roles for decades in everything from Life with
Father (1947) to The Gale Storm Show (1956-1960). Madge Bellamy is best
known for the Bela Lugosi horror picture White Zombie (1932).
Big-budget films like Secrets of the Night were called "Universal Jewel
Productions" in hopes of justifying higher ticket prices. This ploy
actually proved to discourage audiences, and Carl Laemmle did away with
the practice in 1929.
