Zeus

The Mystery Of Mr. X (1934)

• Directors
  • Edgar Selwyn
  • Richard Boleslawski(uncredited)
• Writers
  • Philip MacDonald(from the novel by)
  • Howard Emmett Rogers(screen play)
  • Monckton Hoffe(additional dialogue)
• Stars
  • Robert Montgomery
  • Elizabeth Allan
  • Lewis Stone

  MGM was seldom content to just film a mystery; the story had to be dressed up in some elaborate, unorthodox fashion. Mystery of Mr. X is given an additional visual boost by setting the story in 19th century London, allowing for a full array of the costumes and plush backgrounds of the era and locale. Robert Montgomery is an elegant jewel thief who happens to be working the same territory where a mysterious murderer has struck. Montgomery deduces that the killer, whose victims are all constables, is operating in a pattern resembling the letter "X". To avoid being mistakenly arrested as the murderer, Montgomery endeavors to second-guess where the killer will strike next--and then lies in wait to trap Mister X himself. Adapted from a novel by Philip MacDonald, Mystery of Mr. X was remade in 1952 as The Hour of Thirteen.