And it doesn’t feature eternal monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein (the creature, not the doctor), Wolf Man, or Creature From the Black Lagoon to transcend, either.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a plot-heavy endeavor that is perfectly fine entertainment from its era while also not reaching necessary heights for it to be an iconic entry to the Universal Horror pantheon the way, say, The Invisible Man - also starring Rains - was just a few years earlier. The kid vows his revenge and sets in motion the choirmaster’s comeuppance. An impish kid throws rocks at Durdles, he’s apparently supposed to help keep him straight, and Jasper threatens him. Jasper bribes Durdles, the local cryptkeeper, with a bottle of hooch to show him around the various tombs until he finds an empty one fit for a fresh burial. What he also fails to realize is that Edwin and Rosa mutually decided to call off their engagement, which had been in place since they were children, because there is no actual romantic connection between the pair. While it may even be ingenious how he gets his nephew out of the way, he’s not really accounting for how Rosa feels about him - she recoils from his very presence. Now, whether Jasper’s plan to steal his student away from his nephew makes even an iota of sense or not is immaterial. He will murder his nephew and frame the violent newcomer all while somehow winning Rosa’s heart in the process.

When Neville Landless (Douglass Montgomery), a temperamental orphan who is quick to anger, comes to town and also forms a bond with Rosa while running afoul her fiance, Jasper sees an opportunity and concocts a plan. Jasper’s obsession with his young student manifests in ways undetected by his nephew as he maintains a respectable face in public. He even has a portrait of questionable quality painted by Edwin hanging above his fireplace.

It’s far more of a melodrama with occasional genre shading, particularly in the film’s superior second half.Ĭhoirmaster John Jasper (Claude Rains) is infatuated with his student Rosa Bud (Heather Angel), who also happens to be his nephew Edwin Drood’s (David Manners) fiance. While the central conceit could certainly fit within those genre pitfalls, the execution only dips its toe in those waters. Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Fiji, Finland, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of Croatia, Republic of the Congo, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U.S.The Mystery of Edwin Drood, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel of the same name, is a bit of a curiosity within the context of Universal Pictures’ horror and horror-adjacent films of the era.

Edmund drood