''While London Sleeps'' is a 1926

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

film about a police-dog, Rinty, who helps

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...

defeat a dangerous criminal organisation known as the Mediterranean Brotherhood that operates out of the

Limehouse Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains throu ...

district of London. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National Pictures, First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone is the last major analog sound-on-disc sys ...

sound-on-disc process. Walter Morosco wrote the screenplay. It was the first of many films directed by

Howard Bretherton Howard Bretherton (13 February 1890, in Tacoma, Washington – 12 April 1969, in San Diego, California) was an American film director and film editor. Career He began his career as a propman and then became a film editor during the early 1920s f ...

, and one of several created for

Rin Tin Tin Rin Tin Tin or Rin-Tin-Tin (October 10, 1918 – August 10, 1932) was a male German Shepherd born in Flirey, France, who became an international star in motion pictures. He was rescued from a World War I battlefield by an American soldier, ...

, a German Shepherd dog used in films during the 1920s and 1930s. Only the sound discs to the film survive today with the visual film portions being lost. The British release prints censored the more horrific aspects of the film. George Kotsonaros only appeared in two horror films, this one and ''The Wizard'' (1927), and he played a beast-man in both movies. He died in a car accident in Alabama in 1933.

Plot

Inspector Burke of Scotland Yard concentrates all his forces on the capture of London Letter, a notorious criminal leader in the Limehouse district who possesses both Rinty, a splendid dog, and a man-beast monster called The Monk who ravages and kills at his master's command. Burke almost apprehends the gang in the midst of an attempted theft, but Rinty's uncanny perceptions foil Burke's coup, and Foster is killed for betraying the gang. When Rinty loses in a fight against another dog, Burke's daughter, Dale, rescues Rinty from London Letter's abuse, and he becomes devoted to his new mistress. At the criminal's order, the monster kidnaps Dale and imprisons her. Burke and his men wound London Letter while on his trail, and Rinty finds him dying. In a ferocious battle, Rinty kills the monster by tearing out his throat.

Cast

as Rinty * Helene Costello as Dale Burke *Walter Merrill as Thomas Hallard *John Patrick as Foster * Otto Matieson as London Letter * George Kotsonaros as The Monk * De Witt Jennings as Inspector Burke *

Carl Stockdale Carl Stockdale also known as Carlton Stockdale (February 19, 1874 – March 15, 1953) was one of the longest-working Hollywood veteran actors, with a career dating from the early 1910s. He also made the difficult transition from silent fi ...

as Stokes *Les Bates as Long Tom

Box office

According to Warner Bros records the film earned $235,000 domestically and $97,000 foreign.

Preservation status

No prints of this film are known to survive suggesting it is lost. It is on the Lost Film Files list for missing Warner Bros., but the soundtrack survives intact on

disks in the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a nonpro ...

References

External links