Crime Without Passion
| Crime Without Passion | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Ben Hecht Charles MacArthur |
| Written by | Ben Hecht Charles MacArthur |
| Produced by | Ben Hecht Charles MacArthur |
| Cinematography | Lee Garmes |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Crime Without Passion is a 1934 American drama film directed by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, starring Claude Rains.[1] It is the first of four pictures written, produced and directed by Hecht and MacArthur for Paramount Pictures. Sixty to seventy percent of the film was directed by cinematographer Lee Garmes.[citation needed][2]
The plot centers around a clever and suave but unscrupulous and dishonest lawyer, Lee Gentry (Rains) who boasts that he "lives by lies". His attempts to finish his affair with a clinging, besotted cabaret artist do not go according to plan.
Cast
- Claude Rains as Lee Gentry
- Margo as Carmen Brown
- Whitney Bourne as Katy Costello
- Stanley Ridges as Eddie White
- Leslie Adams as District Attorney O'Brien
- Fanny Brice as Extra (uncredited)
- Helen Hayes as Extra (uncredited)
- Esther Dale as Miss Keeley (uncredited)
- Greta Granstedt as Della (uncredited)
- Paula Trueman as Buster Malloy (uncredited)
Critical reception
In The New York Times, Mordaunt Hall found "a drama blessed with marked originality and photographed with consummate artistry," and cited one of its many pluses as "that of having Claude Rains in the main rôle."[3]
Bibliography
- EAMES, John Douglas, The Paramount Story, London: Octopus Books, 1985
References
- ^ "Crime Without Passion (1934) - Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie.
- ^ "Lee Garmes | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie.
- ^ Hall, Mordaunt (September 1, 1934). "Claude Rains in the First Hecht-MacArthur Production," – via NYTimes.com.
External links
- Crime Without Passion at the TCM Movie Database
- Crime Without Passion at IMDb
- "The Furies," opening montage sequence of Crime Without Passion, special effects by Slavko Vorkapich
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