Public Domain Movies

Lights of New York is a 1928 American crime drama film starring Helene Costello, Cullen Landis, Wheeler Oakman and Eugene Pallette, and directed by Bryan Foy. Filmed in the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system, it is the first all-talking full-length feature film.

When bootleggers Jake Jackson (Walter Percival) and Dan Dickson (Jere Delaney), who have been hiding out in a small upstate New York town, learn that they finally can return to New York City, they try to convince a young kid named Eddie Morgan (Cullen Landis) and his friend, a local barber named Gene (Eugene Palette) to come with them.

With a promise from Jackson and Dickson that they will help the young men establish a barbershop in the city, Eddie asks his mother, Mrs. Morgan (Mary Carr), who owns the town's Morgan Hotel, to loan them $5,000 of her savings. Eddie and Gene set up the barbershop in New York City but soon learn that it is merely a front for a speakeasy.

Frustrated and yearning for a return to the quiet life, Gene and Eddie vow to go home as soon as they earn enough to pay back Mrs. Morgan. Eddie is in love with Kitty Lewis (top-billed Helene Costello), his hometown sweetheart, who preceded him to New York. Now she is a performer at The Night Hawk, a nightclub owned by Hawk Miller (Wheeler Oakman), notorious bootlegger who controls the speakeasy behind the barbershop. Although Hawk's longtime mistress, Molly Thompson (Gladys Brockwell), warns him not to pursue Kitty, he coldly dismisses her, saying that their relationship is over.

After a police officer is killed in a bootlegging raid of a supply of Old Century liquor, Hawk tells his henchmen (Tom Dugan and Guy D'Ennery) that they must find someone to take the blame to keep the police from closing him down. They suggest that Hawk frame Eddie, thereby "killing two birds with one stone." When Eddie comes to the club to visit Kitty, Hawk summons him to his office and asks him to hide his supply of Old Century, saying that it is only temporary, in case the police raid his club. When Detective Crosby (Robert Elliott) comes to the club to question Hawk and implies that he is behind the policeman's murder, Hawk says that the only person he knows who has a supply of Old Century is Eddie.

A short time later, Hawk goes to the barbershop and is killed by an unknown assailant. Fearing that they will be blamed, Eddie and Gene put Hawk's body in a barber chair and cover his face with shaving cream just as Crosby arrives at the shop. After Eddie leaves, a nervous Gene pretends to shave Hawk, but the body slides from the chair, revealing its identity to Crosby. Although Gene swears that the absent Eddie is innocent, Crosby deduces that Eddie has gone to Kitty's apartment and follows him there. Crosby is about to arrest Eddie and Kitty, when Molly arrives and reveals that she killed Hawk because he no longer wanted her. Molly is prepared to pay for her crime but Crosby spares her, informing her that there is a reward, dead or alive, for the killer of the policeman. Now freed from their obligation to Hawk, Kitty and Eddie take the next train home.

Cast
Helene Costello as Kitty Lewis
Cullen Landis as Eddie Morgan
Eugene Pallette as Gene
Mary Carr as Mrs. Morgan
Wheeler Oakman as "Hawk" Miller
Gladys Brockwell as Molly Thompson
Robert Elliott as Detective Crosby
Tom McGuire as Detective Collins
Tom Dugan as henchman
Guy D'Ennery as henchman
Walter Percival as Jake Jackson
Jere Delaney as Dan Dickson
Harry Downing as cabaret entertainer