The Return of Peter Grimm (1926)

Genres - Drama  |   Release Date - Dec 7, 1926 (USA - Unknown), Dec 7, 1926 (USA)  |   Run Time - 77 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

The venerable David Belasco stage piece The Return of Peter Grimm was first brought to the screen in 1926, with Alec B. Francis in the title role. In life a selfish, mean-spirited old man, Peter Grimm returns from the grave to right the wrongs he committed while on Earth. The spectral Grimm pays a visit to his nasty nephew Frederick (John Roche), the husband of Grimm's ward Catherine (Janet Gaynor), who had been forced into the marriage. Literally entering Frederick's conscience, Grimm transforms his covetous, philandering nephew into a "good guy." After several similar episodes, both comic and dramatic, Return of Peter Grimm comes to a tear-stained finale as the tubercular young William (Mickey McBan) joins his grandfather Grimm in the hereafter. The double-exposure work was faultless, with Alec B. Francis seeming to glow and radiate as he ministers to the living. Return of Peter Grimm was ploddingly remade in 1935 with Lionel Barrymore as star.

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Keywords

ghost, grandson, nephew, redemption, tuberculosis