Monday January 19, 7:00pm The Paramount, Seattle
Desperate to save his livelihood and public standing, a congenial businessman, Mathais (Lionel Barrymore), murders a wealthy stranger for his gold to pay an insurmountable debt. As a mountain blizzard rages, an axe is swung, blood stains the snow and sleigh bells ring from the hand of the dying man. Tormented by his guilt and visions of his victim, Mathais is ultimately caught and stands trial for his crime, or does he?
Based on the play Le Juif Polonais written by Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrain in 1867 and adapted for Sir Henry Irving who starred in a much heralded British stage production, The Bells was brought to the big screen no
less than seven times. In addition to Barrymore, the 1926 Chadwick Pictures release stars Gustav von Seyffertitz in a typically sinister role, as the holder of Mathais' debt and Boris Karloff as a creepy sideshow performer, 'The Mesmerist'.
Desperate to save his livelihood and public standing, a congenial businessman, Mathais (Lionel Barrymore), murders a wealthy stranger for his gold to pay an insurmountable debt. As a mountain blizzard rages, an axe is swung, blood stains the snow and sleigh bells ring from the hand of the dying man. Tormented by his guilt and visions of his victim, Mathais is ultimately caught and stands trial for his crime, or does he?
Based on the play Le Juif Polonais written by Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrain in 1867 and adapted for Sir Henry Irving who starred in a much heralded British stage production, The Bells was brought to the big screen no
less than seven times. In addition to Barrymore, the 1926 Chadwick Pictures release stars Gustav von Seyffertitz in a typically sinister role, as the holder of Mathais' debt and Boris Karloff as a creepy sideshow performer, 'The Mesmerist'.