The story of the amateur cracksman has been adapted to the big screen nearly a dozen times since it was written in the early 1900's. This is the first talking version and stars Ronald Colman, well respected and sophisticated and urbane man around town. Little does British high society know that Colman is the notorious jewel thief who sneaks in and robs the safes of the high-society lords and ladies he hangs out with in the middle of the night, and has managed to get away with it for years. When his lover Kay Francis realizes the truth, she finds herself unable to turn him in even though he has stolen a very valuable necklace from her good friend, Alison Skipworth, an aristocrat who has a crush on him.
Scotland Yard inspector David Torrence also suspects Colman who cleverly frames a lower class jewel thief who broke in ironically when he was trying to snag Skipworth's necklace. Sleek and fast-moving, is far better than the 1939 remake with David Niven and Olivia de Havilland that in spite of being nearly an exact duplicate doesn't have the panache even with that equally brilliant cast. It's the pre-code elements that weren't able to a decade later that make this version much more successful. Kay Francis would successfully play a similar character opposite William Powell in the equally memorable "Jewel Robbery" just two years later.
2 out of 2 found this helpful