Think of the great writers of Great Britain in the 1890s - 1900s. The list is like this: Hardy, Conrad, James, Wilde, Conan Doyle, Chesterton, Wells, Madox Ford, Bennett, Beerbohm, Shaw, Barrie...you would probably have the major names we remember (or should remember). But Israel Zangwell...? The author of THE BIG BOW MYSTERY is best recalled for his books of Jewish life in England and America, CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO and THE MELTING POT (he apparently invented that term for American immigrant society). THE BIG BOW MYSTERY was his one mystery story, and was written as a stunt. Zangwell wrote it for a magazine, and there was a contest to see if the readers could guess who the killer was. In the end only one reader guessed who it was.
The film actually changes the structure of the story, and of the denouement - the killer confesses in both the story and movie, but his confession is unnecessary to the police, who found the flaw in his plot beforehand. So he commits suicide.
Zangwell based his novel on an actual case of great public interest in 1887. A woman named Miriam Angel was heard moaning in her locked room in a boarding house on Batty Street in the East End of London. Other roomers broke down the door of her room, and found her dying in bed. A doctor was brought in quickly and discovered she had been poisoned with prussic acid. Then more moaning was heard. Under the dying woman's bed was a man named Israel Lipski, who had apparently taken some poison too. Lipski recovered, and was charged with Angel's murder. He would claim he was forced to go into the bedroom by two men, who then poisoned Angel and framed him. He was found guilty of the murder, and was eventually hanged. But first there was a great movement led by the editor William Stead, who felt the trial was unfair. Stead's attempt almost freed Lipski (Home Secretary Matthews and the trial Justice, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen reviewed the evidence, only to reaffirm the verdict after Lipski apparently confessed). It one wants the full story, read Martin Friedland's THE TRIALS OF ISRAEL LIPSKI.
The film keeps to most of the story, and invents some novel little twists. Grodman (Sidney Greenstreet) has been the brilliant Yard Superintendent for many years, and suddenly learns that he made a stupid error that cost an innocent man his life. The innocent man claimed he spoke to a minister at the time of the crime, and that the minister was going to Wales by boat the next day. Grodman explains that everyone knows that you go from London to Wales by train, not by boat. But it turns out the minister (Arthur Shields) went to New South Wales by boat. He did not hear about the trial of the man until it was too late for him to get back in time. Grodman is condemned in the press, and forced to resign - to be replaced by his rival Superintendent Buckley. This is bad enough, but Grodman is aware of two things that gnaw at him:
1) the evidence that convicted the innocent man was the word of the nephew of the victim (and her heir)that suggested the innocent man was at the scene of the crime when he was with the minister (i.e., the nephew lied).
2) Although Grodman's official work led to the successful trial and prosecution of the innocent man, he really is not responsible for the tragedy. Buckley suspected that the minister may have taken the ship to New South Wales, not Wales, and eventually locates the minister - but he took his time doing it, and did not mention it to Grodman or anyone else. In short, Buckley let Grodman's work kill an innocent man, so he could be disgraced and Buckley could replace them.
If you keep these two points in mind the entire plot makes sense. Grodman wants to return the favor with interest to Buckley.
Furthermore, the nephew of the victim (Morton Lowry - Arthur Kendall in the film), is rather despicable due to his fighting his workers seeking for better pay. He is confronted by a member of Parliament (Paul Cavanagh) who frequently has arguments with him in public. Both Lowry and Cavanagh are friends of Greenstreet and of his closest friend Peter Lorre. Cavanagh, Lowry, and Lorre live across the street from Greenstreet.
I will not go further into the plot, but it is done with great panache. At one point or another (including one famous sequence dealing with pairs of white gloves) everyone (including George Coulouris as Superintendent Buckley) is suspected of being the killer in the plot. It was a very finely made thriller, well directed by Don Siegel and with a tiptop cast. Being the only work by Zangwell that made it to the screen, it seems he was pretty well served after all.
The film actually changes the structure of the story, and of the denouement - the killer confesses in both the story and movie, but his confession is unnecessary to the police, who found the flaw in his plot beforehand. So he commits suicide.
Zangwell based his novel on an actual case of great public interest in 1887. A woman named Miriam Angel was heard moaning in her locked room in a boarding house on Batty Street in the East End of London. Other roomers broke down the door of her room, and found her dying in bed. A doctor was brought in quickly and discovered she had been poisoned with prussic acid. Then more moaning was heard. Under the dying woman's bed was a man named Israel Lipski, who had apparently taken some poison too. Lipski recovered, and was charged with Angel's murder. He would claim he was forced to go into the bedroom by two men, who then poisoned Angel and framed him. He was found guilty of the murder, and was eventually hanged. But first there was a great movement led by the editor William Stead, who felt the trial was unfair. Stead's attempt almost freed Lipski (Home Secretary Matthews and the trial Justice, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen reviewed the evidence, only to reaffirm the verdict after Lipski apparently confessed). It one wants the full story, read Martin Friedland's THE TRIALS OF ISRAEL LIPSKI.
The film keeps to most of the story, and invents some novel little twists. Grodman (Sidney Greenstreet) has been the brilliant Yard Superintendent for many years, and suddenly learns that he made a stupid error that cost an innocent man his life. The innocent man claimed he spoke to a minister at the time of the crime, and that the minister was going to Wales by boat the next day. Grodman explains that everyone knows that you go from London to Wales by train, not by boat. But it turns out the minister (Arthur Shields) went to New South Wales by boat. He did not hear about the trial of the man until it was too late for him to get back in time. Grodman is condemned in the press, and forced to resign - to be replaced by his rival Superintendent Buckley. This is bad enough, but Grodman is aware of two things that gnaw at him:
1) the evidence that convicted the innocent man was the word of the nephew of the victim (and her heir)that suggested the innocent man was at the scene of the crime when he was with the minister (i.e., the nephew lied).
2) Although Grodman's official work led to the successful trial and prosecution of the innocent man, he really is not responsible for the tragedy. Buckley suspected that the minister may have taken the ship to New South Wales, not Wales, and eventually locates the minister - but he took his time doing it, and did not mention it to Grodman or anyone else. In short, Buckley let Grodman's work kill an innocent man, so he could be disgraced and Buckley could replace them.
If you keep these two points in mind the entire plot makes sense. Grodman wants to return the favor with interest to Buckley.
Furthermore, the nephew of the victim (Morton Lowry - Arthur Kendall in the film), is rather despicable due to his fighting his workers seeking for better pay. He is confronted by a member of Parliament (Paul Cavanagh) who frequently has arguments with him in public. Both Lowry and Cavanagh are friends of Greenstreet and of his closest friend Peter Lorre. Cavanagh, Lowry, and Lorre live across the street from Greenstreet.
I will not go further into the plot, but it is done with great panache. At one point or another (including one famous sequence dealing with pairs of white gloves) everyone (including George Coulouris as Superintendent Buckley) is suspected of being the killer in the plot. It was a very finely made thriller, well directed by Don Siegel and with a tiptop cast. Being the only work by Zangwell that made it to the screen, it seems he was pretty well served after all.