Edwin Drood (David Manners) is the nephew of John Jasper (Claude Rains). Jasper is the choirmaster at the local parochial school. One of his students is Rosa Bud (Heather Angel). Rosa and Edwin have been promised to each other since they were babies. Rosa is the ward of Hiram Grewgious (Walter Kingsford). Jasper is addicted to opium and goes to London twice a week to get his fix from an old woman (Zeffie Tilbury) who runs an opium den.
Jasper is a bachelor who has developed an obsession for the young Rosa. Rosa is aware of Jasper’s feelings for her and is fearful of the choirmaster’s intense fixation. Rosa is also not in love with Edwin and looks at him as more of a brother than a future husband. Rosa is unaware that Edwin feels the same. Rosa has just turned eighteen and is now eligible to fulfill her marriage vow. Edwin and Rosa talk and decide to end their betrothal but haven’t told Jasper.
Newly arrived at the school are Neville Landless (Douglass Montgomery) and his sister, Helena (Valerie Hobson). Helena will be living with the nuns and Miss Twinkleton (Ethel Griffies) at the school, and Neville is to live with Reverend Septimus Crisparkle (Francis L. Sullivan). Neville meets and is smitten with Rosa. She returns the feeling.
At first Neville and Edwin don’t get along. Neville is upset at Edwin’s cavalier attitude toward Rosa, but they manage, with Jasper’s counsel, to let bygones be bygones. Shortly after that Neville disappears Jasper tries to guide the investigation of Edwin’s disappearance toward foul play and Neville. Neville, knowing he is innocent, vows to find out what actually happened to Edwin and who is really responsible for his disappearance.
“The Mystery of Edwin Drood” was released in 1935 and was directed by Stuart Walker. It is an American melodrama mystery. The film was based on the unfinished 1870 novel “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” by Charles Dickens. Dickens died before being able to finish and had completed only six of its planned twelve parts. No notes were left on how he intended to end the story, so the filmmakers had carte blanche to do what they wanted with the ending.
Universal spent a lot of money on this movie only to have it flop at the box office. I see why. It is a rather dull and plodding film that was supposed to look sophisticated but just ended up tedious most of the time. It does get more interesting toward the end, but you have to sit through a lot of character development before that.
For some reason the movie is often included as part of Universal’s horror genre even though it is mostly a melodrama with some spooky atmosphere. That’s not surprising since there are a bunch of other thriller and mystery type Universal produced films that are sometimes included in the horror lineup that really shouldn’t be there. Specifically, the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone are also sometimes on the horror list even though they are really mysteries. At least the Sherlock Holmes films are interesting.