The Clue of the New Pin (1929 film)

The Clue of the New Pin is a 1929 all-talking sound British crime film directed by Arthur Maude and starring Benita Hume, Kim Peacock, and Donald Calthrop. The soundtrack was recorded using the British Phototone sound-on-disc system. It was made at Beaconsfield Studios. This film is important historically as being Britain's first all-talking feature film produced entirely in Britain. The first all-talking British feature production, a film entitled Black Waters, had been produced in the United States due to a lack of sound recording equipment in Britain.

The film was one of only 10 filmed in British Phototone, a sound-on-disc system which used 12-inch discs. All of the other nine films made in this process were short films.^[2] In March 1929, this film and The Crimson Circle, filmed in the De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film system, were 'trade-shown' to cinema exhibitors.^[3]

This film is an adaptation of the 1923 novel The Clue of the New Pin by Edgar Wallace. It was later remade in 1961.

A wealthy recluse is murdered in an absolutely sealed room.

• Benita Hume as Ursula Ardfern
• Kim Peacock as Tab Holland
• Donald Calthrop as Yeh Ling
• John Gielgud as Rex Trasmere
• Harold Saxon-Snell as Walters
• Johnny Butt as Wellington Briggs
• Colin Kenny as Inspector Carver

• List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)

• Low, Rachael. History of the British Film, 1918-1929. George Allen & Unwin, 1971.

• The Clue of the New Pin at IMDb
• The Clue of the New Pin (1929) at SilentEra