The Green Archer
The first screen version of Edgar Wallace's The Green Archer starred the Pathé company's popular team of Allene Ray and Walter Miller with Burr McIntosh -- of Way Down East fame (or infamy) -- as the mysterious millionaire Abel Bellamy, whose castle on the Hudson was brought over from England stone by stone. A neighbor, Valerie Howett (Ray), lets her curiosity get the best of her and begins an investigation into the mysterious goings-on at castle Bellamy. There are sliding panels, clutching hands, a strange creature in the cellar, and sundry other haunted house trappings but, happily, Jim Featherstone (Miller) of the Secret Service was present to save the damsel in distress and solve the mystery of the archer, a cloaked character dressed all in green whose appearance signified the death, or in Miss Ray's case, near death of everyone getting close to the castle's secrets. Building an entire replica of a Hudson Valley mansion at the Pathé studios on Long Island, director Spencer Gordon Bennet and veteran scribe Frank Leon Smith produced one of the era's most exciting serials and made a genre superstar of Allene Ray. One Earl R. Howell performed all the archery stunts and the serial also featured the veteran Frank Lackteen as a mysterious Italian. Universal remade The Green Archer in 1940 starring Victor Jory, Iris Meredith, and, as Bellamy, James Craven. more..
Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet