
Leslie S. Hiscott
Directing
Biography
Leslie Stephenson Hiscott was an English film director and screenwriter who made over sixty films between 1925 and 1956. He was born in London in 1894. He directed Alibi, the first ever depiction of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, with Austin Trevor in the lead role.
Known For

The film stars Edmund Gwenn, who plays a chemist, whose son Lawrence (played by Barry MacKay) is attacked on a train. He appears to have shot the man.
Passing Shadows

Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot investigates a mysterious suicide at a country house.
Alibi

Based on a story by author Noel Streatfeild, the film tells the story of two sisters who are left penniless by their father's sudden death and lease their estate as an airbase to US forces in Britain to help the war effort. Both eventually fall for American servicemen.
Welcome, Mr Washington

Holmes, retired to Sussex, is drawn into a last case when his arch enemy Moriarty arranges with an American gang to kill one John Douglas, a country gentleman with a mysterious past. Holmes' methods baffle Watson and Lestrade, but his results astonish them. In a long flashback, the victim's wife tells the story of the sinister Vermissa Valley.
The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes

A pair of friends robs from a jewelry shop, and buries their loot in a field out in the country before they get caught. They spend ten years in prison, and when they're let out they go back to the burial ground, only to find out that it's no longer a bucolic pasture but the site of a large department store. Despite that setback, they're still determined to dig up their stash.
A Fire Has Been Arranged

A card cheat is threatened with exposure into joining a criminal enterprise that Sherlock Holmes believes is controlled by Professor Moriarity.
The Sleeping Cardinal

Mr Pastry's social climbing daughter, president of a society for the rehabilitation for ex-convicts, hides the fact that her father is himself a prisoner. When he is released and arrives at her home, she panics and locks him in the attic until a job can be found for him, preferably abroad!
The Time of His Life

The captain of a British cargo ship shanghais a group of sabateurs, unaware that the daughter of the ship’s owner is among them.
Sabotage at Sea

At a firm of contractors, a partner is accused of murdering his brother following a takeover bid.
Three Witnesses
Comedy film...
Fame
A Scottish shop-girl gets mixed up with crooks then has to pose as the mistress of the Crown Prince of Boravia.
Fine Feathers

Slippery Rodney Haines runs a high-class gambling joint in Hampstead, while elsewhere in London Lamberti's Fair for the less-well-off is on its last legs. The only link between them seems to be Tommy Blyth, whose betting has put him in serious debt with Haines and who fancies Mary, the Lamberti's adopted daughter. In fact, there is a further unexpected link between the two worlds.
When London Sleeps
The heir to a London department store must learn the business by working his way through various menial jobs incognito first. However, a crooked manager has arranged for a cracksman, just out of prison, to join the staff. Each is mistaken for the other.
Department Store

Black Coffee is a 1931 British detective film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott. Based on the 1930 play Black Coffee by Agatha Christie featuring her famous private detective Hercule Poirot, it stars Austin Trevor as Poirot with Richard Cooper playing his companion Captain Hastings. A famous but hated scientist, Sir Amory, is killed during a house party, and some of his valuable papers are missing. Poirot rapidly determines the cause of death and the motive, then narrows down the suspects to the most likely culprit.
Black Coffee

During the Second World War, a German spy goes on the run, carrying important news about a U-Boat campaign. The ship he is traveling aboard is hit by a torpedo. The spy winds up on a lifeboat with other survivors, one of whom is a counterintelligence agent who reveals the German spy's true identity.
The Seventh Survivor

Eddie Smart (George Gee) was born clumsy and is a laughing stock at work, the Sprouto Hair Tonic Company. One day a phrenologist reads his 'bumps' and pronounces him another Napoleon. Eddie becomes a changed man and issues orders to everyone. Meantime the boss believes Eddie to be the rightful owner of the company so let's him have his way. With the boss ill, Eddie invests heavily in the nutmeg market, almost bankrupting the company. By luck the research department discover that nutmeg is the secret ingredient for the new hair-restorer. The 1933 British Lion comedy feature film "Strike It Rich" starring George Gee and Gina Malo seems to be a 'lost' film on the 35mm cinema film format. However it was released (sadly savagely cut) on the UK Pathescope 9.5mm home movie film format in December 1938. One musical number was cut from the 9.5mm feature film release, but issued separately in a 9.5mm Pathe Vox Review. This print has this extra item edited back in.
Strike It Rich

Rodney Playfair is persuaded, by a promise to meet his gambling debts, to impersonate a manservant named Chapman at his fiancée's house...
The Butler's Dilemma

Jewel thieves kill a rich widow and frame a fake medium.
At the Villa Rose
A British comedy film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott
Once bitten

In Dijon, Inspector Hanaud investigates Betty Harlowe after her uncle, Boris Waberski, accuses her of poisoning her wealthy aunt for an inheritance. While an initial autopsy finds nothing, Hanaud discovers the use of Strophanthus Hispidus—a rare, undetectable poison applied via an antique arrow. Amidst a flurry of "poison pen" letters and deception, Hanaud proves the murder occurred despite the lack of conventional medical evidence.