The Passing of the Third Floor Back
The Passing of the Third Floor Back is a 1935 British drama film directed by Berthold Viertel and starring Conrad Veidt, Anna Lee, Rene Ray and Frank Cellier. The film is based on a 1908 play by Jerome K. Jerome and depicts the various small-minded inhabitants of a building and ways they are affected by the arrival of a stranger who works to redeem them. The work had previously been adapted into a 1918 film version by Herbert Brenon. The film or play is referenced in Ngaio Marsh's 1941 novel, Death and the Dancing Footman.
Film poster
Poster
Hans Walter Conrad Veidt was a German-British actor. He attracted early attention for his roles in the films Different from the Others (1919), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Man Who Laughs (1928). After a successful career in German silent films, where he was one of the best-paid stars of UFA, Veidt and his new Jewish wife Ilona Prager left Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. The couple settled in Britain, where he took citizenship in 1939. Veidt subsequently appeared in many British films, including The Thief of Bagdad (1940). After immigrating to the United States around 1941, he was cast as Major Strasser in Casablanca (1942), his last film role to be released during his lifetime.
Veidt in 1941
Conrad Veidt with his mother Amalie, 1893
Veidt c. 1922
Conrad Veidt (left) and Lawson Butt in The Beloved Rogue (1927)