Scotland Yard. 1930. USA. Directed by William K. Howard. With Edmund Lowe, Joan Bennett, Donald Crisp. 75 min.
The restlessly innovative William K. Howard takes on the challenge of a double performance in this early Movietone feature, which casts Edmund Lowe as both Dakin Barrolles, a grizzled thief, and Sir John Lasher, an industrialist whose identity Barrolles assumes, thanks to confusion on the battlefields of France and some miraculous plastic surgery. The experiments in early sound mixing, as Lowe converses with himself, are quite impressive, as is Barrolles’s unlikely success in convincing Sir John’s widow, Xandra (played by a kittenish young Joan Bennett) that he is her missing husband. Sound engineer Albert Protzman remained at Howard’s side throughout his time at Fox. New 4K restoration from nitrate elements held by MoMA, funded by Twentieth Century Fox