Let's give credit where credit is due. It was you who pointed out a "jump-cut" in action within the 1931 film of "The Black Camel" to me. The 'cut' is during a scene, about 20 minutes into the film, featuring the discovery of the murdered body of Shelah Fane.
As part of the 2010 Biggers Birthday Bash, I hosted a screening of the film in Honolulu. Prior to the evening screening, on Monday, August 23, 2010, I ran a daytime screening of the film for you and I. It was at that time that you mentioned that there was a 'jump-cut' in action during the Shelah Fane scene. The 'cut" is included in the DVD home-video release of the film.
When we viewed the BC film, the scene featuring the 'jump-cut' was there too. The missing footage had not removed by a splice to the film print.
Conclusion: The removal of the footage occurred, on a 35mm 'master' print, sometime after the original release of the film (1931), but before the release of the 16mm TV prints (1953) for television syndication.
The Mystery: Who owned the rights to this film in 1953? Why was the footage removed? And by whom?
To quote Charlie Chan: "Secret of this case harder to determine than alley cat's grandfather."