Death from a Distance
| Death from a Distance | |
|---|---|
Lobby card | |
| Directed by | Frank R. Strayer |
| Written by | John W. Krafft |
| Produced by | Maury M. Cohen |
| Starring | Russell Hopton Lola Lane George F. Marion |
| Cinematography | M. A. Anderson |
| Edited by | Roland D. Reed |
| Music by | Sidney Cutner |
Production company | Invincible Pictures |
| Distributed by | Chesterfield Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 68 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Death from a Distance is a 1935 American mystery film starring Russell Hopton and Lola Lane. Lane plays a young reporter who eventually combines forces with a detective played by Hopton to solve a murder-mystery.[1] Directed by Frank R. Strayer, the film was produced by Maury M. Cohen.[2] The film's sets were designed by the art director Edward C. Jewell.
It was the first feature film broadcast on U.S. commercial television, on July 2, 1941, during the first week of official commercial broadcasts on NBC's New York television station WNBT-TV.
Plot summary
While a distinguished astronomer is giving a lecture in a planetarium, a shot rings out and one of the audience members is found dead. A tough detective and a brassy female reporter lock horns as they both try to break the case.
Cast
- Russell Hopton[3] as Det. Lt. Ted Mallory
- Lola Lane as Kay Palmer
- George F. Marion as Jim Gray
- Lee Kohlmar as Prof. Ernst Einfeld
- John St. Polis as Prof. Trowbridge
- Lew Kelly as Det. Regan
- E.H. Calvert as District Attorney
- Wheeler Oakman as Langsdale, aka George Fremont
- Robert Frazer as Morgan
- Cornelius Keefe as Clay Gorman
- John Davidson as Ahmad Haidru
- John Dilson as Newspaper Editor McConnell
- Herb Vigran as the Police Photographer
References
- ^ "Death From a Distance". Evening Express. Liverpool, England. September 30, 1935. Retrieved March 15, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ The Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures 1936. New York: The Film Daily. 1936. p. 183.
- ^ Hanson, Patricia King; Gevinson, Alan (1993). The American film institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States. Berkeley (Calif.) Los Angeles (Calif.) Oxford: University of California Press. p. 345. ISBN 0520079086.
External links
- "Happy Birthday, TV" Variety, July 1, 2011 https://www.variety.com/article/VR1118039380
- Death from a Distance at IMDb
- Death from a Distance is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive