''The Man from Downing Street'' is a 1922 American
silent starring Earle Williams, Charles Hill Mailes, Betty Ross Clark and Boris Karloff.
The screenplay was written by Bradley J. Smollen, based on a screen story by Clyde C. Westover, Lottie Horner and Florine Williams. It is thought to be a
lost film
A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...
.
Plot
Captain Robert Kent (Williams) of the London Secret Service is assigned to
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
to discover the person responsible for the passing out of government information from the British Commission in India. He is disguised as a
Raja
Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian subcontinent, Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
T ...
h and is the guest of Colonel Wentworth (Mailes), who is in charge of the district. Wentworth is the only one who knows Kent's identity, and the two follow up on one clue after another as several persons become implicated. Finally, only two men remain as the logical suspects. To catch the guilty party, Kent confides to the Colonel that he has issued instructions to the London office to send
cables to each of the two suspects on two different matters of commercial importance with the idea being that the subsequent leak of information would reveal the guilty party. The plan works and guilt is attached to Captain Graves (Prior), whom Colonel Wentworth claims has started a rumor on the subject suggested in one of the cables. However, the fact that the Colonel has accused Captain Graves proves that the Colonel was the guilty party as Captain Kent announces that neither of the two cables had ever actually been sent. Trapped, the Colonel is forced to confess.
Cast
*
Earle Williams as Capt. Robert Kent
*
Charles Hill Mailes
Charles Hill Mailes (25 May 1870 – 17 February 1937) was a Canadian actor of the silent era.
Biography
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1870, Mailes appeared in 290 films between 1909 and 1935. He married the actress Claire McDowel ...
as Col. Wentworth
*
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff () and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was a British actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstei ...
dual role as Maharajah Jehan Dharwar and Dell Monckton
*
Kathryn Adams as Norma Graves
*
Herbert Prior as Capt. Graves
*
Eugenia Gilbert as Sarissa
* James Butler as Lt. Wyndham
* George Stanley as Sir Edward Craig
*
Henry A. Barrows as Maj. Barnham
See also
*
Boris Karloff filmography
References
External links
*
1922 films
1922 adventure films
1922 lost films
1920s American films
1920s English-language films
American black-and-white films
American silent feature films
English-language adventure films
Films directed by Edward José
Lost American adventure films
Silent American adventure films
Vitagraph Studios films
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