The Speckled Band (1931)

Finding The Speckled Band (1931) online is easy, there’s many sites that claim to have the movie available and for free – but what they don’t mention is that this is an extremely poor quality, chopped and incomplete version.

The version that’s circulating online is approximately 50 minutes, where the official run time of the original movie is 90 minutes. I recently was able to stream Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace on Plex for free and I got my hopes up that I would find The Speckled Band also.

I was extremely disheartened to find out that this movie like many others of it’s time have been left to rot with no preservation efforts or at least no digitisation efforts. Which got me thinking: “Maybe this film is preserved somewhere but it’s just not released to the public…”

One quick email to the team at the BFI National Archive (who responded exceptionally fast within 3 days) and I’d got the confirmation I needed:

“We hold viewing material for The Speckled Band (1931) and can provide access for non-commercial researchers or students wishing to view research-related material. For more information, please visit the BFI’s  Research Viewing Services.  Please note that viewing sessions are arranged by appointment only and will take place at the BFI’s London premises.”

Realistically, I’m not going to fly to London to watch one single movie but it’s comforting knowing that a true version of it exists. See the BFI details on their versions of The Speckled Band (1931) here.

The reason it hasn’t been released as always is down to copyright restrictions, or maybe lack of knowledge of copyright restrictions. Although there is still some hope! In the UK, a film’s copyright lasts until 70 years after the death of the last principal creator, which is one of these people:

• Director: Jack Raymond – died 1953
• Screenwriter: W. P. Lipscomb – died 1958
• Composer of original music: Uncredited

See others who worked on this film but likely do not impact it’s copyright.

An optimistic copyright lapse date would be: 1st January 2029. Put it in your calendars now!

If you desperately want to watch the poor quality incomplete version of The Speckled Band, here’s a few links, you can likely find many more online yourself: