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RUNTIME
Did you know
Tight 26-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
MoodPlayr · trivia#01
Blue Bottles
1928 0h 26m EN
👍
7.3
SOLID
★7.3TMDB · 3
Synopsis
Spoiler shield
As criminals assemble for a convention, a policeman investigates and is abducted. A young woman finds his whistle and blows it. The full forces of the law assemble. The confrontation between order and disorder ensues, with our heroine caught up in it.
“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”
Cast
Elsa Lanchester
Elsa
Dorice Fordred
Maggie
Marie Wright
Landlady
Charles Laughton
Burglar
Norman Haire
Crook
Joe Beckett
P.C. Spiffkins
Credits
Behind the camera
- Director
- Ivor Montagu
- Languages
- English
Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.
Did you know?
Fun facts 🍿
Cinephile deep dive
The take
Ivor Montagu directs. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Dialogue in English.
Trivia
Things worth knowing
- 1Tight 26-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
- 298 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
- 3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
- 4Elsa Lanchester and Dorice Fordred and Marie Wright carry the top of the cast.
- 5IMDB entry: tt0018712 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
- 6Only 3 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
The technical file
- Runtime
- 26 min · 0h 26m
- Status
- Released
- Original language
- EN
Also by
Ivor Montagu
Community reviews
What people are saying
- CinemaSerf★ 6/10
It's not often that you see Elsa Lanchester (or is it Manchester, or Lancashire?) top the bill whilst Charles Laughton languishes mid-table, but that she does in this slapstick comedy. She just happens to pass a building where just moments earlier, we have seen a group of stripey-clad criminals capture a curious police officer. In the fracas, he has dropped his whistle. She blows it, and next thing there's a full scale street battle going on between the arriving constabulary and the holed-up nasties. Terrified - with that big-eyed look that she mastered so well, the young woman is trying to keep from getting shot, or taken hostage or just trampled to death in the mêlée. Who will win? Can she make it out alive? I doubt even now the Metropolitan Police is as heavily armed as these London bobbies appear to be in this light-hearted short feature and Laughton's low billing is explained by his blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance as a gun toting burglar who, luckily, isn't much of a shot. It's not especially original, and the direction (and editing) are a bit on the ropey side, but it's still quite an entertaining little romp that allows it's star to use her expressive face to full effect as the place slowly gets trashed. Might PC "Spiffkins" be the man of her dreams? Hmmm!
Key crew
Release history · US
When it landed
- Theatrical1928-05-05
