The Phantom of Crestwood

The Phantom of Crestwood is a 1932 American pre-Code murder-mystery film released by Radio Pictures, directed by J. Walter Ruben, and starring Ricardo Cortez, Karen Morley, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Anita Louise, H.B. Warner, and Pauline Frederick. Morley plays Jenny Wren, who plans to extort money from various wealthy ex-lovers, after she lures them to a ranch called “Casa de Andes” near Crestwood, California. The picture features what Leonard Maltin called an "eye-popping" flashback technique, where the camera seems to whirl from one scene to the next,[2] although William K. Howard had actually pioneered this technique earlier that year in The Trial of Vivienne Ware.

The film was based on a radio serial that was heard on NBC Radio's Hollywood on the Air for six weeks from August 26 through September 30, 1932. The radio program ended on a cliffhanger, with the solution to the murders to come in this film. A contest offered more than 100 prizes totaling $6,000 (more than $103,000 in 2019[3]) for the best endings submitted to the network and Radio Pictures. The contest was closed before the film was released; the first winners were to be announced on the program on November 24, 1932.[4] The picture was released on October 14, 1932.[5] The film's introduction features NBC's Graham McNamee in a radio studio recapping the situation—he names Jenny Wren and Carter, as the doomed murder victims—and reminding the audience that the ending in the film was not drawn from contest submissions.

According to RKO records, the film made a profit of $100,000 ($1,720,700 in 2019).[3][1]