THE DECEIVER

DIRECTED BY LOUIS KING
COLUMBIA

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Information From IMDb

Writing Credits
Jack Cunningham writer
Abem Finkel story "It Might Have Happened"
Charles Logue writer
Bella Muni story "It Might Have Happened"
Jo Swerling writer

Plot Summary
Broadway matinee idol, Shakespearean actor Reginald Thorpe, is found dead in his dressing room on the eve of his departure for Hollywood. Thorpe's understudy, Tony Hill, is suspected, particularly in light of his skill with knives. Thorpe, however, was a lady's man who seems to have been involved in blackmailing one of his lovers.
Written by Jim Beaver

Full Cast
Lloyd Hughes ... Tony Hill
Dorothy Sebastian ... Ina Fontanne
Ian Keith ... Reginald Thorpe
Natalie Moorhead ... Mrs. Lawton
Richard Tucker ... Mr. Lawton
George Byron ... Speedy
Greta Granstedt ... Celia Adams
Murray Kinnell ... Breckinridge
DeWitt Jennings ... Inspector Dunn
Al Ernest Garcia ... Payne
Harvey Clark ... Nat Phillips
Sidney Bracey ... Barney
Frank Holliday ... Thomas
Colin Campbell ... Dr. Schulz
Nick Copeland ... Stage manager
Duke Morrison ... Reginald Thorpe as a corpse

Cinematography by
Joseph Walker

Film Editing by
Gene Havlick

I just had to post this film, even if it is for fun
The Deceiver was hardly a forward move,
in young Morrison's career!!
In the film he plays a CORPSE!!!.
as a stand-in for the body of
Ian Keith, who is murdered in the film's plot.

The story to how this happened,
is that a prop man, told Harry Cohn,
that Duke was having an affair with a Columbia actress
a favourite of the studio head!
As a result Duke's bit parts at the studio
were drastically diminished, so much so ,
he was on Cohn's 'S*** list,
As a result, Duke was treated as something best swept in the gutter!
In The Deceiver, Cohn let the actor know where
he stood in Columbia's pecking order,
by casting him as a corpse,
No lines, No movement- Just dead!!

It was major humiliation for a young actor,
who not long before was the star of The Big Trail!