"Amateur filmmaker, cinema historian and railway engineer H.A.V. Bulleid presents a tale of paternal foreboding and rural tragedy. When a man dies, his widow seeks a suitable replacement to care for her and their son. Torn between two rival suitors - Dr. Vincent Moire and the mysterious Richard Grafton - the mother is unable to make a decision, despite her son expressing a clear preference for the doctor. When he is called away to town, Grafton seizes his opportunity and, wanting rid of the boy so that he might live with the mother in peace, shoves him over a cliff to his death. But when Grafton returns to the village, he spots the doctor - who has made an unexpected return - walking arm in arm with the widow. Distraught and defeated, Grafton claws at his neck and face in desperation, reaches into his jacket, pulls out a gun and kills himself." (EAFA Database)
Amateur film club production that parodies Russian tragedy literature. The story revolves around two warring families, the Yagustynkas and the Chenstohovas, a romance, a religious curse, and murder. Exaggerated intertitles contribute to the film's "burlesque" of Russian culture and literature.
"Although there is no actual violence portrayed in this psychological thriller, Storm Due — in which a young wife discovers her husband to be a murderer — is instinct with mounting tension and terror. Francis J. Barrett's film is a potent combination of several related elements. Wedded almost as one are dramatic, hard-hitting camera angles and the visual stimulus of brilliant, low-key lighting. Acting of theatrical calibre by the young wife is accented by an off-stage voice which underlines her fears — a technique that suggests a loan from the best in modern radio. A taut continuity only hints at the story line as it hurries through this exciting evocation of violence. This very economy of dramatic exposition, in fact, will make Storm Due an unpopular and often misunderstood production. For these reviewers, however, it remains creative cinema of a very high order." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 454-455.
"a murder mystery drama with a cast of at least 14 players" (HMHT 1933: 299).
"An honorable mention in the 35 millimeter division went to Thomas Fisher, of 410 Semple Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., for his grim and Barrymorish study of Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart.' Mr. Fisher played two parts, displayed no little skill in make-up and worked out an interesting, if gory, film." Photoplay, Jun. 1928, 137.
Thriller film about an escaped murderer, and a nearby woman who is home alone.
"Basing his story line on an incident which is said actually to have occurred in Sweden, Harry W. Atwood has proved once again in Through the Valley his imaginative understanding of what makes a true motion picture. For here is camera work of the first order, expressed in meaningful angles and building through a stirring chase sequence to a point of very real dramatic tension. If anything, the film's climax has been staged with a shade too much of melodrama, while a concluding quotation from the Scriptures left these reviewers regretfully more puzzled than uplifted." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 471.
"Under the able direction of Kenneth E. Carrier, ACL, a production unit of the Grand Rapids Amateur Movie Club has produced an engrossing film drama based on a short-short story from a Billy Rose column. Two Paper Cups begins as if it would tell the familiar tale of a bored husband plotting the murder of his wife for the love of that "other woman." But a double switch at the plot's end saves the life of the married woman and, with irony but without need, takes the life of the husband. Top notch photography, expert staging and lighting, good acting and skillful editing make this photoplay an outstanding example of cooperative filming at its best." Movie Makers, Dec. 1951, 410.
"'The Voice of the Key' is a magnificently staged photoplay, beginning with the very professional series of opening titles and featuring remarkable interior photography, considering the limited equipment at the disposal of the filmer. Charles Carbonaro, using photo-floods entirely, has achieved some truly professional illumination in his interior settings, and his camera technique displays an artist's genuine feel for forceful and dramatic story telling with a camera. The story concerns a murder of an unfaithful wife's lover by her husband, and the steps the husband takes to conceal his part in the crime, only to be tripped up by his door key as the incriminating evidence. Carbonaro used a Cine Special Camera and Eastman Super X panchromatic film. The script, which he wrote himself, was adapted from a story published in 'This Week', Sunday supplement magazine of national distribution." American Cinematographer, Apr. 1950, 133.
"Great ambition and a wide knowledge of both amateur and Hollywood camera techniques mark Charles J. Carbonaro's The Voice of the Key. The film is a whodunit, involving many of the human reactions — from love and hate to cynicism, impatience and sudden passion — all of which have to be registered by the actors at Mr. Carbonaro's command. It's a large order, and the film does not quite fill it dramatically. But the good things about The Voice of the Key are very good indeed." Movie Makers, Dec. 1950, 468.
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Amateur Cinema