The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935) was the third film adaptation and first sound film version of Charles Dickens's

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 unfinished novel

Unfinished work

An unfinished work is creative work that has not been finished. Its creator may have chosen never to finish it or may have been prevented from doing so by circumstances outside of their control such as death. Such pieces are often the subject of speculation as to what the finished piece would have...

 of the same name

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens' death, and his intended ending for it remains unknown. Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, the story focuses on Drood's uncle, choirmaster John Jasper, who...

. It starred Claude Rains

Claude Rains

Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...

 in the role of the villainous John Jasper. Filmed by Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures

-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...

, it co-starred Douglass Montgomery

Douglass Montgomery

Robert Douglass Montgomery was an American film actor.-Career:Son of a jeweler, he used the stage name of Douglass Montgomery when he first acted on stage in New York. He appeared as a ruggedly handsome fair-haired man, often slightly naive. He started his career in Hollywood, often playing the...

 and Valerie Hobson

Valerie Hobson

Valerie Hobson was a British actress who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s...

 (the future Estella of David Lean

David Lean

Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...

's 1946 Great Expectations

Great Expectations (1946 film)

Great Expectations is a 1946 British film which won two Academy Awards and was nominated for three others...

), and featured David Manners

David Manners

David Manners was a Canadian - American film actor.Born Rauff de Ryther Daun Acklom in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Manners came to Hollywood at the beginning of the talking films revolution after studying acting with Eva Le Gallienne, and acting on stage with Helen Hayes...

 as Edwin Drood. It was directed by Stuart Walker, who had directed a little-known 1934 film adaptation of Great Expectations. The film's script provides an ending to the original unfinished novel, solving the mystery of the fate of Edwin Drood.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood marks Claude Rains's only appearance in a Charles Dickens film.