The Film of Fear

The Curious Cases of Detective Richard Duvall #3

by Arnold Fredericks

Mystery novel surrounding a Hollywood movie starlet.

Genres: Mystery

314 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1917

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short detective novel. Originally published in 1917, at the dawn of the motion picture industry, it was apparently the first, or one of the first, novels to feature this theme. (And, contrary to what other reviewers may have written or implied, or even what the blurb may say, this is not a book about Hollywood. It takes place in New York City and surroundings on the New Jersey side where, at the time, a significant portion of the film industry was still located, before the general exodus to California a few years later.) It takes place in the silent era, and pre-dates the advent of talkies by around ten years. Amusingly for us a hundred years later, the slang word "fan" appears in quotes throughout the book.

The protagonist of the story, Ruth Morton, is a very young film star, darling of the audiences, who is earning some 50,000 dollars per year. Primarily known for her beauty (and that's your cue to roll your eyeballs), Ruth is a big earner. She lives with her mother, naturally, and is very wholesome. After receiving messages that seem to be threats of violence or death, mother hires a private detective, Duvall, to investigate the case.

The characters aren't terribly three-dimensional but they're alright. And Duvall isn't exactly a Sherlock Holmes, but he plods right along and investigates reasonably. If you want the truth, I liked Duvall's wife Grace best of all the characters. And she has a decent role. She's plucky and dives right in to assist, and despite an obvious bit of jealousy, doesn't come unravelled but pretty well keeps her head despite entering the danger zone. As I read along, I could almost see/hear this thing as a typical 1930s noir film possibly starring an actress like Lillian Gish all peroxided up, with maybe Claudet Colbert as Grace. (Although they're sort of different generations.)

One point of interest for me was the essential clarity and relative simplicty of the author's prose, especially for the era. A lot of books of the time tend toward the overly melodramatic and mildly purple, but this writing is pretty straight-forward. Young writers could definitely find worse models for genre prose than this. It still feels rather modern. The book does contain a handful of racial references utilizing "polite" vocabulary typical of the era as well.

The book is in the public domain, so don't get sucked into paying big money for any e-books of it. I read the free Feedbooks edition, apparently produced from the 1917 hard cover edition. I spotted only one or two typos in the whole thing, so if it was originally sucked in via OCR, someone did good proof-reading later. Try here: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4258/th... ; probably made from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29498 .

[Yibbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is recognized as the first novel centered around the motion picture industry. Interesting to read the early views of film industry but it has a very predictable plot. free e-book

[Larry Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather a "meh". This is an old-fashioned detective novel in along the lines of one of those "locked-room" mysteries. There are a few clues, none of which seems to be possible to have been effected. In the end it all comes out magically. I've read much better.

A famous young movie star (silent films in those days) starts receiving threats, some by letter, some by mysterious telegrams, some by notes dropped in her room by means seemingly impossible. One night, she observes a ghastly death's head at the side of her bed. She's going all vapors on us, and it's affecting her career.

World famous detective, Richard Duval decides to come out of retirement to look into the matter. His wife, Grace, goes with him to New York for the investigation, although Duval tells her not to help. But, she helps anyway, receives some threats of her own, and so forth. So, there are lots of scary moments and lots of impossible things happen, but in the end, it all works out and things get back to being glorious and normal...or something.

Really should be ***-, i.e. slightly worse than "average".

[Lexie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, listen, the book is probably only about 3-stars, but a wonderful Librivox reading raised it to 4 for me. It was great!!

The book deals with the very earliest days of the motion picture industry. A beautiful starlet is being menaced by a deranged fan… or sworn enemy. Threatening letters arrive with no probable source, and her mother has no choice but to engage the services of the Honeymoon Detectives, Richard and Grace Duvall.

A couple of exciting twists later and everything is sewn up. I wish Grace had a larger role, she was the best part of the book.

[Neer · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay mystery interesting only because of its background of a budding film industry in the US.

*

First Line: Ruth Morton finished her cup of coffee, brushed a microscopic crumb from her embroidered silk kimono, pushed back her loosely arranged brown hair, and resumed the task of opening her mail.

Source: Feedbooks.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read, obviously predictable plot, but the setting is interesting from an historical perspective about the film industry in its infancy.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mysteries have come a LONG way. Fun, but oh so simple!

[Chuck Williamson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beneath its fun and frothy exterior is an attempt (as crude as it might be) to really investigate the myths of early Hollywood stardom.