Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

Shadow of the Law (1930)

Director: Louis J Gasnier

Cast: William Powell, Marion Shilling, Natalie Moorhead, Regis Toomey, Paul Hurst, George Irving, Frederick Burt, James Durkin, Richard Tucker, Walter James, Broderick O Farrell

69 min

Shadow of the Law is a 1930 film directed by Louis Gasnier and starring William Powell.

Plot

A woman being pursued by an intoxicated man breaks into John Nelson’s apartment, imploring his help. Nelson, a young engineer, confronts the man, who accidentally topples through a window to his death.

Unable to prove the circumstances, Nelson is convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. With the aid of his cellmate, he escapes and under an assumed name becomes manager of a textile mill in North Carolina.

Later, his former cellmate, Pete, is commissioned to find Ethel Barry, the woman who can clear him so that he may marry Edith, the mill owner’s daughter; but Ethel forces his hand through blackmail.

Detective Mike Kearney tracks him down, but when Montgomery (Nelson) mutilates his hands in a machine to erase his fingerprint identity, Kearney decides to force Ethel to clear him.

Cast

William Powell	…	Jim Montgomery aka John Nelson
Marion Shilling	…	Edith Wentworth
Natalie Moorhead	…	Ethel Barry aka Ethel George
Regis Toomey	…	Tom Owens
Paul Hurst	…	Pete Shore
George Irving	…	Colonel Wentworth
Frederick Burt	…	Detective Lt. Mike Kearney
James Durkin	…	Prison Warden
Richard Tucker	…	Lew Durkin
Walter James	…	Captain of the Guards