A Study in Scarlet is a 1933 American Pre-Code mystery thriller film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes and Anna May Wong as Mrs. Pyke. The film bears no relation in plot to Arthur Conan Doyle's original novel of the same name, as the producers purchased rights only to the title, not the storyline of Doyle's book.
In London, a secret society led by lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew collects the assets of any of its deceased members and divides them among the remaining members. Society members start dropping like flies. Sherlock Holmes is approached by member James Murphy's widow, who is miffed at being left penniless by her husband. The atmospheric doings involve coded messages, a pretty heiress, sinister villains, and a country mansion with a secret passage.
A Study in Scarlet contains examples of:
- Advertised Extra: Despite receiving second billing, Anna May Wong only appears on screen for less than ten minutes.
- Alliterative Title: A Study in Scarlet
- Amoral Attorney: Lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew is described by Holmes as being the 'blackmail king of London'. He is also head of the Scarlet Ring and conspires with Captain Pyke to murder the other members so they can split the total proceeds of the crime between themselves.
- Calling Card: The killer leaves a scrap of paper on each of his victims containing a verse from "Ten Little Black Boys".
- Car Fu: The killer attempts to run down Wilson while he is on his way to Holmes.
- Composite Character: Amoral Attorney Thaddeus Merrydew seems to be a combination of Professor Moriarty and Charles Augustus Milverton in the canon Sherlock Holmes stories: being both the head of an elaborate criminal conspiracy and the 'blackmail king of London'.
- Gas Chamber: Eileen is left bound and left unconscious in a room filling with gas. Holmes and Stanford arrive just in time to save her.
- Faking the Dead: Captain Pyke fakes his own murder, and arranges for a body wearing his ring and clothes to be found in the river with its face destroyed to convince everyone he is dead. with the perfect alibi of being dead, he sets about killing the other members of the trust.
- In Name Only: Bears no relation in plot to Arthur Conan Doyle's original novel of the same name, as the producers purchased rights only to the title, not the storyline of Doyle's book.
- Never Suicide: Murphy is found dead in the locked lavatory of a train and his death is ruled a suicide. Later, the killer shoots Dearing in such a way as to attempt to make it look like a suicide.
- Obfuscating Post Mortem Wounds: The killer shoots Deering twice, with the second shot intended to mask the path of the first and make the death look like a suicide.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: Someone is murdering each of the members of a mysterious secret trust. The killer even leaves a piece of paper containing a verse from "Ten Little Black Boys" on each of the victims, making the link to And Then There Were None more obvious.
- Tontine: A variant. The Scarlet Ring is a trust where, when any of the members die, their assets become part of the trust. However, rather than going to the last man standing, the trust is waiting for an certain investment to come through at which point the money is split among the surviving members. The 'investment' is the sale of stolen jewels.
