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The Feathered Serpent (1934 film)

1934 film by Maclean Rogers

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ7733606 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Feathered Serpent is a 1934 British thriller film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Enid Stamp-Taylor, Tom Helmore and Moore Marriott. It was written by Kathleen Butler and Rogers based on the 1927 novel The Feathered Serpent by Edgar Wallace.

Preservation status

The British Film Institute National Archive holds a collection of stills but no film or video materials.

Plot

When their own investigations into the murder of Joe Farmer stall, Scotland Yard asks newspaper reporter Peter Dewin to assist. He is able to find evidence to put the police on the right track, and the culprit is apprehended. Dewin himself finds love with the murderer's secretary, who is uninvolved with the crime.

Cast

Enid Stamp-Taylor as Ella Crewe

Tom Helmore as Peter Dewin

D. A. Clarke-Smith as Joe Farmer

Moore Marriott as Harry Hugg

Molly Fisher as Daphne Olroyd

Vincent Holman as Inspector Clarke

Evelyn Roberts as Leicester Crewe

Iris Baker as Paula Ricks

O. B. Clarence as George Beale

Reception

The Daily Film Renter wrote: "That Edgar Wallace wrote the original of this tale of scared crooks and mysterious vengeance ensures a narrative with well-varied characters, mystic and baleful happenings, and a swiftly moving climax. The maker and cast of the film have competently preserved this spirit and produced quite a fair entertainment."

Kine Weekly wrote: "This crime drama, adapted from a story by Edgar Wallace, is too involved to make good screen entertainment. The producer has failed to preserve the author's cunning in the weaving of the many threads, and this resulis in complete loss of dramatic continuity."

Picture Show wrote: "Here we have once again the spectacle of a young reporter out-sleuthing the experienced sleuths of Scotland Yard in unmasking a murderer.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Feathered Serpent (1934 film)” is 1934 film by Maclean Rogers. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Feathered, Serpent and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1934, 1927—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1934-01-01. For this dossier, Feathered, Serpent and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1934 film by Maclean Rogers” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7733606. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934 and 1927.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Feathered Serpent (1934 film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Feathered Serpent (1934 film) primary sources, The Feathered Serpent (1934 film) archive and Feathered research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Feathered Serpent (1934 film)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Feathered Serpent (1934 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.