| The Crime of Helen Stanley | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | D. Ross Lederman |
| Written by | Charles R. Condon Harold Shumate |
| Starring | Ralph Bellamy Shirley Grey Gail Patrick |
| Cinematography | Allen G. Siegler |
| Edited by | Otto Meyer |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 58 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Crime of Helen Stanley is a 1934 Americanpre-Codecrime film directed byD. Ross Lederman and starringRalph Bellamy,Shirley Grey andGail Patrick.[1] The film is also known asMurder in the Studio.[2] It was the third in a series of four films featuring Bellamy asInspector Trent of theNYPD following on fromBefore Midnight andOne Is Guilty. The final filmGirl in Danger in the sequence was released later in the year.[3]
Inspector Trent (Bellamy) investigates the death of film star Helen Stanley (Patrick) on the set. Another actor in the film, Wallach (Stephen Chase, uncredited) believes he has killed Stanley after he put a live bullet into a prop gun when he "shot" her, and commits suicide after confessing. However the live bullet was still in Wallach's gun.
Other suspects are the cameraman, Stanley's lover Lee Davis (Richmond), her sister, Betty Lane (Grey), who is having an affair with Davis. Also in the mix are Stanley's business manager, George Noel (Page) who owed her $60,000, the director Gibson (Prival) who Stanley knew was an illegal alien, and Stanley's bodyguard, Karl Williams (Sherman), who was blackmailing her. Trent solves the mystery by reenacting the murder, where the true killer is revealed.[2]