Lloyd of the C.I.D.

BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films

Directed by Henry MacRae, 1931

British cinema's only sound serial, other than those made specifically for children's Saturday morning clubs, with 12 chapters of Scotland Yard's finest pitted against the deadly machinations of master criminal, 'The Panther'.

Diana (Janice Adair) is menaced by the ghost of the manor (Emily Fitzroy)

Credits

Director Production Company Supervisor Story Adaptation Photography Editors	Henry MacRae Mutual Film Company Clarence MacKain Henry MacRae Ella O'Neill Desmond Dickinson Charles Saunders, Thorold Dickinson
Cast: Jack Lloyd (Chief Inspector Lloyd); Wallace Geoffrey (Giles Wade, 'The Panther'); Muriel Angelus (Sybil Craig); Lewis Dayton (Randall Hale); Janice Adair (Diana Brooks); Tracey Holmes (Chester Dunn); Emily Fitzroy (the manor ghost)
Episode titles: The Green Spot Murder; The Panther Strikes; The Trap Springs; Trapped by Wireless (some sources cite Tracked by Wireless); The Death Ray; The Poison Dart; The Race with Death; The Panther's Lair; Imprisoned in the North Tower; The Panther's Cunning; The Panther at Bay; Heroes of the Law
Total length 227 mins, 20,507 feet, sound, black & white.

Why are we so keen to find it?

Because it was the first and, as it turned out, only sound serial to be made in Britain for screening to general audiences. From the mid-1940s and the founding of Children's Entertainment Films (a production entity within the Rank Organisation), some serials were produced for audiences of children at Saturday morning clubs, a mantle taken up by the Children's Film Foundation from 1956. But, apart from these, there were no other serials made in this country after the silent era.

While three serials were actually released in the late 1940s and 1950s, these were derived from pre-existing features and are thus arguably not the genuine article. Dick Barton - Special Agent was registered with the Board of Trade as a feature in March 1948, before being re-edited and registered as a six-episode serial in September that same year. This same feature was also a constituent part of the 1955 serial The Adventures of Dick Barton, which also used footage from that other Barton feature, Dick Barton Strikes Back (1949). The 1957 six-episode serial, Adventures with the Lyons, was a re-edited version of the feature, Life with the Lyons (1954).

What's it about?

Information on the main story and how it progresses over 12 chapters is unavailable, although the surviving press book of the American release has some information on the contents of each episode, from which the following general synopsis is derived.

One of the prized possessions of wealthy Randall Hale is a jewelled armlet from the tomb of King Tutankahmun. Master criminal Giles Wade, aka The Panther, organises a robbery of Hale's mansion, but the armlet is revealed to be a fake. Hale nevertheless calls in Chief Inspector Lloyd of Scotland Yard to investigate the incident. Hale's niece, Diana Brooks, who he has never met, is visiting from Canada, but Wade has her kidnapped and drugged before she arrives at her uncle's. Sybil Craig, an accomplice of Wade's, is substituted in Diana's stead. As Sybil discovers where the armlet is held, Lloyd stumbles upon the drugged Diana and rescues her. Another attempt by the Panther to steal the armlet results in an ambush by Lloyd, and in the ensuing fight and confusion the armlet is picked up by the manor's ghost (yes, that's right, a ghost). Further attempts by Wade to locate the armlet are interwoven with numerous kidnappings, death by electric ray machine (no master criminal worthy of the title would be without one), and chases by both car and foot through London and Paris. How the adventure is resolved is not known, but no doubt the redoubtable Lloyd wins the day.

Last seen?

All 12 episodes were shown by the UK's HTV channel (and that channel alone, serving Wales and the South West) on Saturday mornings between 8 January and 26 March 1977. The serial was billed as Detective Lloyd, this being the serial's title when released in the US in 1931/32, so what was shown may have derived from US distribution prints (HTV have no information on either the source or fate of the prints screened in 1977). From the original programme notes, now held at New York University, of William K. Everson's screenings of prints from his own collection at the Theodore Huff Memorial Film Society, it appears that the serial's first episode was screened at that venue on 24 March 1975. This print may now be held by the Motion Picture Department, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York State, although this has not been confirmed.

What else do we know about it?

The serial was the first production of Mutual Films, a British subsidiary of the Hollywood major, Universal. With Hollywood input, it is not surprising to find that, despite serials having been produced in Britain in the silent period, Hollywood practitioners versed in serials were brought over to lead on the production. Director Henry MacRae had been directing serials since the teens, and had recently completed Universal's The Indians are Coming (1930), starring Tim McCoy. He also supplied the story for Lloyd of the C.I.D., while the actual screenplay was the work of Ella O'Neill, who had recently worked on the Universal serial Heroes of the Flame (1931).

An interesting aspect of the serial is the degree to which location shooting was apparently utilised. In an otherwise less than glowing review, The Kinematograph Weekly asserted that "the chief attraction is the authentic London background", while the press book emphasises the number of London landmarks featured in the film, including "scenes actually filmed at Scotland Yard". Among the other locations listed are the British Museum, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and the Bank of England.

A feature version, cut down to 6,121 ft, was released late in 1932 under the title The Green Spot Mystery. Again, this is not known to survive.

Does anything survive?

Perhaps, if the prints screened by HTV can ever be tracked down. In addition, other than possible promotional material in the contemporary trade press, including a poster in the 11 February issue of The Kinematograph Weekly, the BFI holds a press book of the American release and a set of stills. Some of these were clearly issued at the time that the serial was being made, as the reverse of some stills note that the film is currently in production and will be Britain's first sound serial, whereas others bear the title The Green Spot Mystery and thus will have been issued to coincide with the release of the feature version.

Reviews

Reviews in the trade press were published before the full serial had been released, and are based on the first two or three episodes, but these indicate that it was not greeted with much enthusiasm, being deemed suitable only for undiscriminating audiences. While The Bioscope thought "it lacks nothing in action", it added the caveat that "much of the development is overstrained in melodramatic intensity." Nevertheless, it concluded that "the fade-out on each occasion [the end of an episode] is sufficiently intriguing to ensure the continued support of the unsophisticated patron".

The Kinematograph Weekly took a similar line: "it contains all the elements looked for by a serial fan, and should do well where serials are appreciated", while adding that "the direction is artificial, but the handling of the episodes is sufficiently good to warrant appreciation from juvenile audiences".

Although William K. Everson had said, in the aforementioned programme notes, that "this sole attempt at a British sound serial was such a disaster that it was hooted at and soon disappeared", it nevertheless sounds an intriguing oddity, and while it could never live up to its contemporary tag line - "12 Chapters of Baffling Mystery - Smashing Drama - Terrific Suspense and Cyclonic Action!" - we live in hope.

John Oliver, Curator (Fiction), BFI National Archive

You can find more about British films of the early 1930s, including entries on surviving films and video clips for users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries, at BFI Screenonline. You can also view similar titles at the BFI Mediatheques.