The Lacquered Box

The Lacquered Box
The Lacquered Box
Directed by	Jean Kemm
Written by	Pierre Maudru; H. Fowler Mear; Brock Williams;
Based on	Black Coffee (play); 1930 play; by Agatha Christie
Produced by	Jacques Haïk
Starring	René Alexandre
Cinematography	Paul Cotteret
Music by	Henri Verdun
Production; company	Les Établissements Jacques Haïk
Distributed by	Les Établissements Jacques Haïk
Release date	15 July 1932;
Running time	85 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

The Lacquered Box (French: Le Coffret de Laque) is a 1932 French crime film directed by Jean Kemm and starring Réné Alexandre. It was based on Agatha Christie's play Black Coffee which had been turned into a British film the previous year.^[1]^[2]

The film is the first sound adaptation of Agatha Christie’s work with known surviving copies.^[3]

Plot

Fearing the theft of an important secret formula, the scientist Claud Amory (Maxime Desjardins) asks for help from Monsieur Préval (René Alexandre), director of the Sûreté. But when Amory is mysteriously poisoned inside his own home, the detective realizes the case is more serious than he had imagined and decides to investigate each of the suspects.

Cast

In alphabetical order

René Alexandre as Préval
Maxime Desjardins as Claude Amory
Maurice Varny as Richard Stenay
Gaston Dupray as Gaston de Ravennes
Danielle Darrieux as Henriette Stenay
Alice Field as Lucie Stenay
Marcel Vibert as Dr. Carelli
André Laurent as Raynor
Arbell as Antoine
Isabelle Anderson as Marthe
Jean Laurent as Dr. Dernault

References

↑ Gras, Gwénaëlle le; Sellier, Geneviève (15 June 2020). Danielle Darrieux ou la traversée d'un siècle (in French). Presses universitaires de Bordeaux. ISBN 979-10-300-0941-5.
↑ Tulard, Jean (18 July 2013). Guide des films - Intégrale (in French). Groupe Robert Laffont. ISBN 978-2-221-12486-4.
↑ Lefevre, João Pedro (24 April 2026). "Early Agatha Christie film adaptation found". Medium. Retrieved 26 April 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

Bibliography

Philippe Rège. Encyclopedia of French Film Directors, Volume 1. Scarecrow Press, 2009.

External links

The Lacquered Box at IMDb

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[1] Gras, Gwénaëlle le; Sellier, Geneviève (15 June 2020). Danielle Darrieux ou la traversée d'un siècle (in French). Presses universitaires de Bordeaux. ISBN 979-10-300-0941-5.

[2] Tulard, Jean (18 July 2013). Guide des films - Intégrale (in French). Groupe Robert Laffont. ISBN 978-2-221-12486-4.

[3] Lefevre, João Pedro (24 April 2026). "Early Agatha Christie film adaptation found". Medium. Retrieved 26 April 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

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