David Manners 1902-1998 By Jim Coughlin

It seems a little odd that an author, whose writings abound with the speculative philosophy of metaphysics, should be primarily remembered as a horror film actor, who specialised in playing narrow-minded disbelievers. Such, however, is the case with David Manners, whose multi-phasic and talented career has led him to the stage, screen, and world of literature.

The name David Manners conjures up a picture, at least for the student of horror films, of a somewhat arrogant romantic leading man rebuking a learned old professor about ridiculous theories, which, of course, turn out to be true. Whether it be John Harker casting Van Helsing’s views aside (DRACULA), Frank Whemole denying the plausibility of what Dr. Muller has to say (THE MUMMY), or Peter Alison rudely dismissing the postulations of Vitus Werdegast (THE BLACK CAT) – this is the legacy that Manners has bestowed on the genre of the fantasy film.

Manners was born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on April 30, 1902. His father, George Moreby Acklom, served at the time as headmaster of Harrow, a boy’s school where young Canadians were prepared for English universities. His mother, the former Lilian Manners, was a cousin of Lady Diana Manners Cooper, the noted British actress. Young Rauff attended the Collegiate Grammar School in Windsor, Nova Scotia, until 1909, when his family moved to New York City.

Rauff’s education continued at private schools and he was eventually enrolled in Trinity High School, an old, select Episcopal institution in Manhattan. A few years ahead of Rauff at Trinity was another young man soon to carve a name for himself in the acting profession, Humphrey Bogart.

A creative child, Rauff would construct puppets and miniature theatres in order to enact plays that he had seen. By the age of sixteen, Rauff had developed such a passion for the theatre that his parents were greatly disturbed. In any event, his dramatic aspirations were temporarily halted when he entered the University of Toronto to study forest engineering, his father’s choice of a career for Rauff.

While at college, young Acklow discovered a semiprofessional little theatre group connected with the university. The company put on a wide variety of plays from Shakespeare and Shaw to contemporary works. He later reflected, “Those of us who weren’t in a play put on overalls and built sets, acted as stage hands, did everything there was to do around the place. It was an opportunity to learn the theatre from every angle.” Eventually, Rauff became established as the group’s leading player.

When his father learned of his stage activities, he cut off Rauff’s allowance in the hope that his son would give up acting. Rauff had no such intentions, so he found a part-time job that paid eighteen dollars per week. “I lived for three years on this amount, often nearly starving to death, because I spent most of my wages on rent and clothes,” he recalled.

Acklom studied for the stage for awhile under dramatic teacher Bertram Forsyth. Forsyth was influential in landing Rauff his first professional part at the beginning of 1924. The young actor made his debut at the Hart House Theatre, Toronto, in the title role of “Hippolytus” by Euripides. Soon after, Rauff rejoined his family in New York and attempted to find acting work in the area.

Acklom was fortunate enough to secure a position almost immediately with a road company of the prestigious Theatre Guild under the direction of Basil Sydney. Among the roles he played on a repertory tour were bareback rider Alfred Bezano in “He Who Gets Slapped,” which also featured Zita Johann with whom he would later appear in The Mummy (1932), and Solveig’s father in “Peer Gynt.” Rauff also understudied Sydney in “The Devil’s Disciple.”

Under the stage name of Michael Dawn, Acklom made his Broadway debut as Kenneth Cobb in “Dancing Mothers” (8/24) at the Booth Theatre. This Edgar Selwyn and Edmund Goulding comedy starred Helen Hayes and Henry Stephenson. It also ran an entire season, much to Rauff’s dismay. “I was frantic with the monotony of having to repeat the same lines night after night.”

Somewhat disillusioned with the theatre, Acklom left the stage and took a position at the Durlacher Art Galleries in New York as a private secretary to one of the firm’s executives. Part of his job involved his making contacts in society that would result in the sale of valuable antiques and paintings. If Rauff wasn’t all that pleased with his Park Avenue working status, at least his parents were. “My family thought peddling Cezannes and Picassos more respectable than pounding one’s chest and bellowing behind the footlights, so they accepted me again.”

Acklom remained with Durlacher Bros. for three years. Six months of each of these years was spent at the firm’s office in London’s Mayfair district. He was being groomed to take over as manager of the London branch, an idea which appealed to Rauff as he had grown very fond of the city. The only problem was that every time Acklom was there, he contracted pneumonia. Rauff came down with a severe case the final year he was in London for Durlacher Bros. and was sent to Arizona on physician’s orders. Various doctors cautioned him to spend the rest of his life in a warm, dry climate.

Rauff arrived in Phoenix, Arizona in late 1928 and soon thereafter secured a job at a dude ranch. He had to adapt himself to the cowpuncher’s way of living, but was aided by the fact that he had been a good horseman since childhood. Acklom served as a dude wrangler and guide, answering guest’s questions and teaching them to ride. However, his British accent somewhat spoiled the illusion of Rauff being an authentic cowboy. While working at the ranch, Acklom was married to Suzanne Bushnell.

Acklom constantly kept an eye open for interesting opportunities, so he jumped at the chance to work for a sugar company based in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was en route to accept his new position in late 1929, when he decided to stop and look up some friends in the Los Angeles area. Rauff was invited to a dinner party during his layover, where one of the guests was director James Whale. Whale was in the process of casting the film Journey's End (which he had directed on the London stage) and inquired if Rauff had any theatrical experience. When Acklom answered affirmatively, Whale invited him to the studio to test for the role of Raleigh.

When the executives at Tiffany saw Acklom’s screen test, they sent a wire to London to cancel the Raleigh who was set to arrive along with the stage version’s Captain Stanhope (Colin Clive). While on the Tiffany lot awaiting the onset of production of Journey's End, Rauff made his motion picture debut in Troopers Three (1930). Acklom was unbilled in this comedy-action tale, which starred Rex Lease and dealt with the U. S. Cavalry during World War I. It was around this time that he adopted the name of David Manners for the screen.

Journey's End (1930), based on the play by R. C. Sherriff and masterfully directed by Whale, was an excellent dissertation on the horrors of war. Manner’s role is definitely overshadowed by Clive’s moving performance as Stanhope, but still contains some fine moments. According to film historian William K. Everson, “.. as the character matures, Manners has more of a chance, and his big confrontation with Stanhope is superbly done.” 2nd Lt. James Raleigh is fresh out of the same school attended by his commanding officer (Clive) and, to top if off, is the brother of the girl Stanhope loves. Raleigh worships Stanhope and exhibits great spirit and loyalty. The captain, however, resents the presence of the young officer and eventually a rift develops betweens the two. Raleigh is mortally wounded and his dying body is brought to Stanhope in what constitutes the most powerful scene of the film. Although the film, in essence, belongs to Colin Clive, Manners did not pass unnoticed. The reviewer in “The Brooklyn Standard Union” remarked, “In addition to his (Manners’) appearance, which should be enough to stir the female contingent, he records beautifully and acts even better.”

Manners next appeared in He Knew Women (1930), an RKO comedy-drama. David portrayed Austin Lowe, a wealthy young chemist, whom Lowell Sherman tries to match up with Frances Dade (later to be featured with Manners in DRACULA). Dade realises that she is being pushed aside so that Sherman can marry an affluent widow and takes out her hostility on Manners. By film’s end, though, Manners and Dade fall in love and set sail for Europe.

Warners believed Manners to be on the verge of stardom and signed him to a long-term First National contract in mid-1930. He was to make twelve films for them in just over two years and his experience with the studio soured him forever on the film industry. Manners’ first feature under contract was a crime melodrama, Sweet Mama (1930). David played Jimmy, the boyfriend of Rita Flynn, who gets mixed up with the rackets. Jimmy is suspected of betraying the gang and is almost pushed from a skyscraper, but heroine Alice White saves the day.

David had an interesting role as the Caliph Abdullah in the Otis Skinner vehicle, Kismet (1930). Hajj (Skinner) pretends he is a magician and is goaded into murdering the Caliph. A coat of mail saves Abdullah’s life and he even manages to wed Hajj’s daughter Marsinah (Loretta Young) before the final credits.

In Mother's Cry (1930), he was Artie, one of four children of widow Dorothy Peterson. Manners’ fiancé in Dracula, Helen Chandler, played his sister Beatty. Artie is a promising architect who changes his name and eventually leaves home to avoid the disgrace which befalls his family.

The Truth About Youth (1930), a society drama, had David as Richard Dane, the ward of Conway Tearle. Dane fouls up his guardian’s marriage plans for him by falling in love with Myrna Loy. He secretly marries Loy, but she leaves him for a gambler. Dane confesses his indiscretion to his original betrothed (Loretta Young) and departs for the West. Young then weds Tearle to give the film a happy conclusion.

Manners enjoyed playing a farmer in The Right To Love (1930), as it was a departure from the roles he was getting mired in. He explained, “I guess I’m permanently typed as a sophisticate – a product of highly developed civilisation. And I’m not a bit like that, really. I hate dress-suit parts.” In this film, as Joe Copeland, he falls in love with Ruth Chatterton. They must meet separately because their neighboring families had a disagreement. Manners’ role is brief as he is killed by a harvesting machine early in the going, but it sets the tone for the rest of the story.

Universal obtained Manners on loan from First National to portray John Harker, a role originally intended for Lew Ayres, in their production of Dracula (1931). Little did anyone realise at the time that this film, based more on the stage play by Hamilton Deane and John Balderston than on Bram Stoker’s novel, was destined to become a classic and launch a veritable wave of horror films upon the movie-going public.

Harker is initially seen at the opera with his fiancé Mina Seward (Helen Chandler), her father Dr. Seward (Herbert Bunston), and Lucy Western (Frances Dade), where they fatefully meet Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi). Later, after Lucy is mysteriously murdered, Mina relates to her strange dreams to John. Professor Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) discovers a possible explanation in the marks on her neck, just as Dracula arrives. The Count apologises for telling stories that might have upset Mina, which elicits a sarcastic comment from John. After Van Helsing exposes Dracula with a mirror on a cigarette box, Harker remarks, “Did you see the look on his face? Like a wild animal!” John then spots a wolf running across the lawn, but scoffs at Van Helsing’s explanation.

At this point, the basic David Manners character in horror films has been defined. He is the passive hero, whose love interest also intrigues the monster-villain. He is slightly haughty, cynical, and disbelieving. Although everything works out in the end, it is only through the intervention of learned figures like Edward Van Sloan. Manners’ characters in The Mummy (1932) and The Black Cat (1934) exhibit remarkably similar traits.

After Harker is finally convinced of Dracula’s identity and purpose, he decides to take Mina to London Van Helsing balks. Dracula must be destroyed. To remove Mina from the protection of the professor would mean certain death or even worse (As the Count had explained so eloquently at the opera, “There are far worse things … awaiting man, than death!”). Harker concedes for the time being, but still becomes angry with Van Helsing for frightening Mina with a crucifix, when she was actually going to put the bite on John. Finally Harker comes around and accompanies Van Helsing to Carfax Abbey. He discovers Mina, while the professor drives the fatal stake through the vampire’s heart. All three head toward the stairs, as church bells toll.

On the whole, Manners’ depiction of Harker is more annoying than gallant, but this is the touch that director Tod Browning had in mind. It also established a precedent of sorts for, not just Manners’ characters, but male romantic leads in horror films in general. The part itself was not written with much dimension, but “The New York Times” found fit to comment, “David Manners contributes good work.”

Manners’ next motion picture, The Millionaire (1931), gave him the opportunity to play opposite that superb actor, George Arliss. Arliss was a retired automobile magnate in the film, whom takes half-interest in a filling station with young Bill Merrick (Manners). Merrick, who is studying at night to be an architect, falls in love with Arliss’ daughter (Evelyn Knapp). Anyway, Arliss, as well as the lovers, finds happiness in this simple existence.

Manners had a role with pathos as a sightless aviator in The Miracle Woman (1931). John Carson (Manners) is halted from committing suicide when he hears an evangelist (Barbara Stanwyck) on the radio. Later, they meet and she falls in love with him. The young flyer is finally able to let her know that his feelings are the same by speaking via a ventriloquist’s dummy.

David was then featured in The Last Flight (1931), based on a novel by John Monk Saunders (once married to Fay Wray) and directed by William Dieterle (who directed the Laughton Hunchback of Notre Dame, among many noted films). The film starred Richard Barthelmess and Helen Chandler as Nikki. Manners was Shep Lambert, one of a group of post-WW I fliers who live a limbo-like existence in a world that has lost meaning for them Lambert drinks to stop his facial tic, usually to a state of oblivion. He dies when he is accidentally struck by a bullet, reliving a crash from which Barthelmess saved him. Of his death scene, William K. Everson feels, “… it showed what a sensitive actor he could be when cast as something other than a passive hero in horror films.”

The Ruling Voice (1931) had David as Dick Cheney, a wealthy youth secretly engaged to Loretta Young, the daughter of the ruthless head of the Milk Trust (Walter Huston). Next, Manners was Dey Emery, who has an affair with Joan Blondell, in a story about “golddigging” females, The Greeks Had A Word For Them (1932).

In Lady With A Past (1932), Manners delivered what “The New York Times” termed a “clever impersonation” as Donnie Wainwright, who dreads the idea of paying attention to shy Constance Bennett. She later turns the tables by inviting him to a party and humiliating him.

David fell for Marian Marsh (of Svengali fame) in Beauty and the Boss (1932). She played the secretary to his brother, the Baron (Warren Williams), and leads Paul (Manners) on as a means of reaching the Baron’s heart.

In Man Wanted (1932), Manners played Tom Sheridan, the secretary to an ambitious woman (Kay Francis). Their harmony in work leads to a dangerous intimacy that undermines their private lives. Edward Van Sloan was also in the cast as the manager.

As Jeffrey in Stranger In Town (1932), Manners was the manager of XYZ Grocery Stores, Inc., who move into the little town of Boilsville. Everything in the town had formerly been run by Chic Sale. Sale’s granddaughter (Ann Dvorak) falls in love with Jeffrey and elopes, but leaves him when she hears that Sale is being boycotted. Jeffrey quits his job, helps re-establish her grandfather, and all is reconciled.

Crooner (1932) starred David as Teddy Taylor, a young college band leader and saxophone tutor, who becomes a national radio favorite. Although his aims are initially modest, his shrewd press agent (Ken Murray) and adoring fans soon go to his head. Teddy gets an expensive apartment and a valet. He ignores his fiancé (Ann Dvorak) for a divorcee. Eventually Taylor realises that he is a fool and tries to pick up the pieces. Teddy unwittingly strikes a cripple, however, and completely destroys his career. He ends up playing the sax at a dive in Harlem, but pops up dramatically at the conclusion to prevent Dvorak from marrying the unscrupulous Murray.

Manners appeared for the fourth time with Loretta Young in They Call It Sin (1932). As Jimmy, he is engaged to the daughter (Helen Vinson) of his boss, but falls in love with a small-town Kansas charmer (Young). She follows him back to the big city, but learns of his upcoming marriage to Vinson. As a result, she turns to the despicable Louis Calhern, who is murdered. Jimmy, of course, is suspected, but cleared. “The L.A. Times” stated, “Mr. Manners does some excellent sympathetic work as the young man who can’t help loving two women.”

David was undergoing many conflicts around this time, but was able to resolve two of them. He obtained a divorce from his wife Suzanne and terminated his First National contract. About the latter, he remarked, “I feel as if I had stepped out from under a heavy load. I have been trying for a year to get a release from my contract and then it came about. Often while with First National they lent me to other studios at twice the salary I received from them. I don’t think I’m particularly mercenary, but if I’m worth twice what I’ve been getting I may as well collect the money myself.”

The very day after he left First National, Manners signed with RKO to play in A Bill Of Divorcement (1932). Even though his part was small, David considered it his greatest opportunity in films because of the inspiration of acting with and observing John Barrymore. “The Great Profile” totally dominates the film as a shell-shocked soldier who escapes from an asylum on the eve of his wife’s remarriage. Barrymore also forces his daughter (Katharine Hepburn) to cancel her own wedding to Kit Pumphrey (Manners) and devote herself to her father’s welfare.

Manners further cut his niche in the realm of horror films with his portrayal of Frank Whemple in The Mummy (1932). This film, directed by noted cameraman Karl Freund, is a true classic of the genre and still holds up extremely well when viewed today. Frank is the son of Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron), who headed the expedition that found the mummy of Im-Ho-Tep (Boris Karloff) in 1922. Ten years later, Frank and Professor Pearson (Leonard Mudie) head the British Field Expedition digging near Thebes in quest of the tomb of Princess Ankh-es-en Amon. Im-Ho-Tep, disguished as Ardath Bey, an Egyptian archaeologist, leads them to the tomb and Frank rushes down excitedly as the resting place is unearthed. Keeping in character with his earlier Harker role, Manners sarcastically bemoans the fact that the museum is keeping their findings.

Later, at the museum, Frank drives up and encounters the spellbound Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann). She faints in his arms and he brings her to his home. Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan – who else?) drops by and introduces Helen as his patient. Frank discusses his discovery with her and Helen chastises him, wondering if he has to open graves to find girls to fall in love with. Frank is quite persistent, countering, “You can tell me to go to the devil, but you can’t laugh at me.” Fuller and Sir Joseph begin to entertain the possibility that Ardath Bey is in fact Im-Ho-Tep and wonder about his interest in Helen. Muller pleads that Sir Joseph burn the Scroll of Thoth, but, before he can, he suffers a heart attack under Im-Ho-Tep’s power. Frank is sceptical about his father’s demise and is further cautioned by Muller to protect Helen. She is unable, however, to heed Frank’s warning when Im-Ho-Tep calls her.

When Helen returns from her encounter with Im-Ho-Tep, Frank demands to know where she has been. Helen tells him off and her actions so disturb Muller that he orders her confined to bed. Our doubting hero is now convinced that she is under Ardath Bey’s power, so he and Muller contemplate destroying the mummy. When Frank removes his charm of Isis, given him by Muller, while looking in on Helen, Im-Ho-Tep renders him unconscious. Helen leaves, stepping over Frank’s outstretched body, and goes to Im-Ho-Tep, who is about to prepare her for immortality. Whemple and Muller enter as Ardath Bey is about to plunge the sacrificial knife into Helen. They are powerless to help, but Helen is able to save herself by beseeching Isis, whom the Princess Ankh-es-en Amon had served so many centuries before. Im-Ho-Tep distintegrates, while Frank and Muller cover their eyes. Finally, they run to Helen, who responds to Frank’s words, as the Scroll of Thoth burns to nothingness.

“The New York Times” observed that, “Zita Johann and David Manners make a properly disturbed pair of lovers.” Manners’ performance of Whemple was much better than that of Harker, mainly because the role was less constricting. Though still inept for a hero, he proved a more likeable character on the whole.

Manners appeared with Lugosi for the second time and Van Sloan for the fourth in a lower budget thriller, The Death Kiss (1932). David was Franklyn Drew, the author of a detective story being filmed in a studio, where the leading actor is murdered. Drew constantly annoys the police investigating the case and eventually solves the crime. In doing so, he proves the innocence of the dead man’s ex-wife (Adrienne Ames), whom Franklyn has fallen in love with. Lugosi didn’t do it either, appearing in one of the first of his many red herring roles. “The New York Herald Tribune” review read, “The performance by David Manners as the writer has an alert attentiveness which is convincing.”

Manners played an unfortunate young embezzler, Wesley Burt, in From Hell To Heaven (1933). The story revolves around a race track and Burt is there attempting to win enough to pay off his theft before it is noticed. Adrienne Ames, Manners’ leading lady in The Death Kiss, played his wife in this film. At the climax, Jack Oakie, the star, kills a thug and gives Wesley the dead man’s winnings, thus saving the embezzler from a jail term.

The Warrior's Husband (1933), a mythological tale of Ancient Greece, featured David as Theseus. He and Homer (Lionel Belmore, noted burgomaster in horror films) seek to gain the girdle of Hippolyta (Marjorie Rambeau), which is the secret to the power of the Amazons. They are captured by the warrior females, but escape with the assistance of Hippolyta’s sister Antiope (Elissa Landi), who has fallen in love with Theseus.

His next role was that of Dr. Martin Nichols in The Girl In 419 (1933). Manners played a young intern who is shot while preventing William Harrigan from killing hospitalised Gloria Stuart. Nichols later poisons gangster Harrigan in retaliation for being deprived the use of an arm.

The Devil's In Love (1933) had Manners in the Foreign Legion as Capt. Jean Fabian. He helps a doctor (Victor Jory), who has been unjustly sentenced to death, escape. Jory confounds matters by falling in love with Fabian’s fiancé (Loretta Young – again), but the problem is solved as the captain is slain by natives besieging their outpost. Bela Lugosi had a small bit in the film as the prosecutor at Jory’s trial.

Manners had a small, but important part as Michael Gardner in Torch Singer (1933). He deserts Claudette Colbert before their baby is born. Colbert later loses her daughter as well and broadcasts over the radio in hopes of locating the child. At the conclusion, all three are reunited when the child is found and Gardner returns from China to give little Sally a last name.

David even found his way into an Eddie Cantor comedy, Roman Scandals (1933). He played Cantor’s pal Josephus. Together they rescue Josephus’ beloved British princess Sylvia (Gloria Stuart). “Variety” noted, “David Manners stands out in the cast, one of the few Hollywood actors who can look genuine in a Roman toga – his satisfying playing of the leading straight role does a lot to sharpen the comedy angle.”

Manners ventured to England in December 1933 to star in a film for BIP tentatively titled Contraband. Once again, Manners’ health and Great Britain did not mix. He was stricken with a serious case of the flu which kept him away from the cameras for a few weeks. The film was completed and released in May 1934 as The Luck Of A Sailor. It was a romantic yarn about a Ruritanian Queen (Greta Nissen) who abdicates her throne for the love of the English Captain Colin (Manners).

David was not impressed by the British filmmaking industry. “An unfortunate condition in English studios is brought about by people who are given technical or advisory positions because of their supposed familiarity with Hollywood methods. Many of them are imposters and are totally incompetent. Then, too, I feel that English producers lose by refusing to gamble on new talent.”

Manners’ third and final major horror role was that of Peter Alison in The Black Cat (1934). The film not only combined the talents of Karloff and Lugosi, but was effectively directed by Edgar C. Ulmer in a style reminiscent of the great German silent horror classics. Alison and his wife Joan (Jacqueline Wells, aka Julie Bishop) are on a honeymoon journey on the Orient Express. Due to mixed-up reservations, their privacy is interrupted by Dr. Virtus Werdegast (Lugosi), who, like the young couple, is taking the train to Vizhegrad and going on from there by bus. Werdegast can’t keep from staring at Joan and apologises, citing her similarity in appearance to his own wife. After the three travellers transfer to a tourist bus, a tree falls in their path and the vehicle overturns. Joan is hurt and the accident victims seek refuge at Fort Marmaros, which is now the home of Engineer Poelzig (Karloff).

Peter, who is a writer of thrillers, and Joan enter the bizarre abode and are puzzled when Werdegast screams as a black cat passes by. Poelzig puts them up for the night and the following morning they prepare to be on their way, as Joan is feeling better. As they thank their host Poelzig, Peter is knocked unconscious and he and Joan are carried off. She is taken away to be the sacrifice at a black mass, but is rescued by Werdegast and his servant (Harry Cording). Peter comes to and enters as Werdegast is skinning Poelzig alive. He unknowingly shoots Vitus, Joan’s benefactor, but Werdegast allows them to flee before blowing up the infamous Marmaros and its heinous occupants.

Manners is a bungling hero once again in The Black Cat. He never even comes to the realisation of what is going on, as he eventually does in Dracula and The Mummy, until the film is at its very conclusion. David is his usual sceptical self, dismissing one of Lugosi’s theories as “superstitious baloney.” Manners handles this colorless role adequately, but it is far from one of his better performances.

Right around this time he was completing his next film, The Great Flirtation (1934), David became an American citizen. This movie saw Maners as playwright Larry Kenyon, with whom Elissa Landi falls in love. She is married to Adolph Menjou, though, but the husband makes everything rosey by bowing out and leaving her to Kenyon.

Manners had done some writing in college and was beginning to entertain the notion of making the literary profession his future. “When my picture career is finished I hope to be established as an author. I’m writing a book which includes a metaphysical angle, but before I can hope to put such a subject over successfully I’ll have to gain a reputation in the literary field. Oddly enough, in The Black Cat I played an author and in The Great Flirtation I was a playwright. Both parts pleased me immensely.”

David starred in a modern version of The Moonstone (1934) by the famed English author of detective novels, Wilkie Collins. The story concerns an oriental drug that causes the user to walk in his sleep. Joining Manners in the cast of this Monogram “epic” were Herbert Bunstone (Dr. Seward from Dracula) and sinister silent screen villain Gustav von Seyffertitz.

In The Perfect Clue (1934), he played an ex-con named David Mannering, of all monickers. Dorothy Libaire falls in love with him, believing David to have been falsely convicted. Later, when Mannering is a natural suspect for a murder rap, Libaire helps to clear him.

Manners had the title role, but that was about all, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), based on an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens. Edwin is murdered by his Uncle Jasper (a superb portrayal by Claude Rains) because his betrothed (Heather Angel) happens to be the object of Jasper’s unholy love.

David was more actively involved in the proceedings of Jalna (1935). The film title refers to the ancestral home of the Whiteoak family in So. Ontario, Canada, the land of Manners’ birth. He played Eden, a poet who has a book accepted for publishing and, amidst the scorn of his virile kinsmen, goes to New York to supervise the printing. Eden returns to the estate with a wife (Kay Johnson), but success has gone to his head and he ignores her in favor of his younger brother’s wife (Molly Lamont). When the clandestine affair is discovered, Eden hurls himself off a cliff.

For quite a few years, Manners had wanted to buy a ranch, settle down, and retire. He much preferred the existence of this had to offer, as opposed to the movie business. “I don’t know of a more perfect relaxation than sleep after a day of hard, physical labor. I prefer the simple life and simple, genuine people. People who have the courage to live naturally. There is nothing more inspiring than the earth. It gives one healthy ideas.”

So, in late 1935, Manners purchased a thousand-acre guest ranch in the Mojave Desert, near Victorville, California. It was named Rancho Yucca Loma. David could now lead the life he desired and satisfy his zeal for writing novels. Manners was to appear in his two final films in 1936 and, also that year, on June 22 he was married to Gwen Behr.

Hearts In Bondage (1936) was a Civil War saga directed by Lew Ayres. Manners portrayed Raymond Jordan, whose father (George Irving) and friend (James Dunn) design the Union ship, “Monitor.” Being from Virginia, though, Jordan sides with the South and is killed aboard the “Merrimack” in the famous confrontation between the two ironclad vessels.

Manners’ last cinematic role was that of a young naval officer, Alan Freeland, in the Katharine Hepburn film, A Woman Rebels (1936). He is loved by Kate’s sister (Elizabeth Allan) and they are married before he has to rejoin his ship in Italy. When Hepburn ventures overseas to visit them, her trip is marred by the news that Freeland has been killed in an explosion. So ended the motion picture career of David Manners.

During his ten year hiatus from acting, Manners penned his first three novels. They were entitled, Convenient Season, Under Running Laughter and A Legacy From Lannie. David was spending time at his parents’ home in the Hudson Heights section of Hastings, New York, at Christmastime, 1945, when the acting bug bit again. He was enticed by Alan Brock, among others, to return to the stage in Maxwell Anderson’s “Truckline Café.”

“Truckline Café” opened at the Belasco Theatre in New York in February 1946 and featured a cast that included two young hopefuls – Marlon Brando and Karl Malden. Manners was quite good, in spite of his layoff, as R.A.F. Wing Commander Hern, who shows a group of people, thrown together at a small restaurant on the ocean highway between San Fran. And L.A., how to bear up in the face of calamity. The play includes a moving scene wherein Hern believes Virginia Gilmore to be the wife of a friend with whom he escaped from German prison camp. Despite some fine performances, the show closed after two weeks on Broadway. In the summer of 1946, David toured in stock, paying the lead in “The Male Animal.”

Manners then hesitatingly accepted an offer to appear in Agatha Christie’s “Hidden Horizons,” which was being produced by Albert de Courville and the Shuberts. The play, starring Diana Barrymore, opened at the Plymouth Theatre in September 1946. “The New York Morning Telegraph” opined, “David Manners played a typical movie type, a handsome young ‘milord’ in disguise, in the way you would expect, except that he gave it the extra-something that comes from a one-time film star.” Manners was Smith, spouting communism throughout and turning out to be a wealthy nobleman. David had felt that the play was better suited for London theatre-goers and was quite right. It barely lasted a week.

David’s final stage appearance was in Oscar Wilde’s “Lady Windermere’s Fan.” In December 1946, Manners replaced Henry Daniell of the original Broadway cast as Lord Windermere, remaining with the production when it left the Cort Theatre for a cross-country tour with star Cornels’ Otis Skinner, Bramwell Fletcher, and Estelle Winwood. Manners’ acting career ended when the show closed in San Francisco in June 1948 after over 500 performances on the road.

Since retiring from both stage and screen, David Manners has been living in Pacific Palisades, California. A member of the Authors League of America, he still spends a great deal of his time writing. David also enjoys working in his garden and trying his hand at painting.

In a letter to his friend Alan Brock, who helped his return to the stage in the forties, Manners stated (c. 1972), “I write mostly philosophical pages these days, which you might disagree with vastly. One small book is finished and waiting for a publisher, and the second is The Divine Fool. Most of my writings deal with metaphysics. I have a way of disturbing people greatly.” David was finally able to realise his thirty year-old goal of dealing with that subject.

Remarking about his career, Manners added, “I have no love-affair with the past. The present is real – the moment is real – and that’s all there is.” Most film buffs would not agree. David Manners attained a notoriety in films, certainly in such horror classics as Dracula, The Mummy, and The Black Cat, that has etched his image in the memory of every true movie fan.