The Vulture

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

Directed by Ralph Ince, 1937

A slapstick comedy starring Claude Hulbert as an eager amateur detective who tracks down diamond thieves to London's Chinatown and pursues a master crook known as 'The Vulture'.

A tense moment for Stiffy (Hal Walters) and Cedric (Claude Hulbert)

Credits

Director Production Company Executive Producer Screenplay Original Story Photography Studio	Ralph Ince Warner Brothers First National Productions Irving Asher Brock Williams, Reginald Purdell, John Dighton Stafford Dickens Basil Emmott Teddington Studios
Cast: Claude Hulbert (Cedric Gull); Lesley Brook (Sylvia Stevens); Hal Walters (Stiffy Mason); Frederick Burtwell (Jenkinson); George Merritt (Spicer); Arthur Hardy (Li Fu); Archibald Batty (McBride); George Carr (Charlie Yen)
67 mins, 6,024 feet, sound, black & white.

Why are we so keen to find it?

Probably more for historical reasons than artistic ones. Comedy rarely ages well, and The Vulture - a broad slapstick about a hapless, but keen, amateur detective taking on Chinese diamond thieves - doesn't sound particularly promising as a missing comedy gem. Indeed, surviving images from the film suggest that the Chinatown finale is probably outdated and likely to offend modern sensibilities. But the film is indicative of a particular moment in British film history, namely the prolific years leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War, when domestic stories, made by the British subsidiaries of the American Major studios, fed an insatiable public.

The image from the Kinematograph Weekly - proudly announcing Warner Bros. First National Productions previews for early 1937 - captures the company at the peak of their game. On the bill are three comedies, a spy thriller and musical drama, but of these five movies, three are now missing. The Vulture, written and starring British talent, but produced and directed by Americans, was a hit and spawned a sequel - The Viper - the following year. That too is missing.

What's it about?

The following synopsis was edited from a First National Film Distributors' press release:

Cedric Gull is intensely proud of the diploma he has gained from a self-styled School of Detection, and yearns to demonstrate his talents as a sleuth. He is first on the scene of a burglary and attempted murder of a diamond merchant named McBride. He finds McBride's secretary, Sylvia Stevens, administering to the victim. Despite Cedric's anxiety to prove his capabilities, the police ignore his attempts to help them.

Convinced that the crime must be the work of a master crook known as 'The Vulture', Cedric visits a prison on the principle of 'set a thief to catch a thief.' He engages Stiffy who, despite working on the right side of the law for a change, lands them both in gaol. The police, however, allow them out as decoys. Cedric discovers that Sylvia has been abducted and disguises himself as Chinese. He enters Chinatown in the hope of rescuing Sylvia, unmasking the thieves and revealing the identity of the mysterious 'Vulture'.

Last seen?

The London trade show played on 17th February 1937, and was followed by a nationwide summer release on 19 July. There was no known re-release, but it's possible that the film had a second life during the run of The Viper, the sequel which appeared in March 1938.

What else do we know about it?

Hulbert's love interest was played by Lesley Brook, who made her debut in The Vulture before taking the eponymous lead role in Patricia Gets Her Man (1937). That film previewed only a couple of weeks after The Vulture, an indication of Teddington's fast production schedule, as well as the ease with which actors could chalk up roles at the studio.

The film's American director, Ralph Ince, was also an actor, whose most famous role was probably as Diamond Pete Montana in Mervyn LeRoy's Little Caesar (US, 1930). His first film in Britain was also an acting job, alongside Claude Hulbert in the Marion Marsh vehicle Love at Second Sight (d. Paul Merzbach, 1933), but he soon moved into directing quota films, enjoying a run of 16 movies with Warner Bros First National in the late 1930s. His brother was Thomas H. Ince, a promising director who died under mysterious circumstances on William Randolph Hearst's yacht. Ralph Ince also died tragically, in a car crash a few months before The Vulture opened to the public.

Does anything survive?

Little survives around the film except the stills reproduced here and the various promotional material used in the weekly trade magazines of the time. The BFI National Library also holds a First National Film Distributors press release, featuring a questionable portrait of Claude Hulbert's Chinese disguise.

Reviews

The reviews were surprisingly warm to Hulbert's nitwit sleuth; the often snooty Monthly Film Bulletin conceding that the "amusing story" was "adequately directed and the fun well timed." The Kinematograph Weekly's preview celebrated Executive Producer Irving Asher's "further British success" praising The Vulture's "excellent production values". But the review that ran a fortnight later was a little sharper, pointing out that "animation, rather than dialogue quality, is the strongest suit of this picture." The reviewer writes that "the type of buffoonery here displayed may not be to everybody's idea of amusement, but it can boast a definite public and to the exhibitors catering for that public."

Indeed, all of the reviews suggest that the film's strength is Claude Hulbert's performance. The MFB notes that he makes 'the most of his opportunities' while Kinematograph Weekly spells the film's appeal out explicitly:

"Claude Hulbert fans should find this feature very much to their taste. The peculiar fecklessness of the star is well adapted to the super-inanity of the story, and the film, with its crazy humour and asinine 'hero' goes all out for the well-known Hulbert effects - and gets them... Hulbert is in his natural element as the witless detective and works hard to get the laughs.... Star appeal may help to carry a weak story."

Elsewhere it reports that The Vulture is a "sound booking for Claude Hulbert fans, the masses and youngsters." Relying heavily on star appeal, and tied so firmly into the period in which it was made, it's possible to see how this film may have disappeared in the years after Hulbert's star waned.

Dylan Cave, Curator (Fiction), BFI National Archive

You can find more about British films of the late 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.