Tubi, and to an extent the other FAST services, have a wealth of obscure stuff that I'd assume fell into the public domain available to stream on demand. I've got several early talkies in my watch list, and recently saw one starring Edward G. Robinson even before Little Caesar. The movie in question is The Hole in the Wall.
Robinson is technically not given star billing here -- he's billed fourth -- but he's the male star here, playing a character called "The Fox". The Fox is the leader of a gang that fleeces the rich under the guise of using a medium going by "Madame Mystera" (an actress named Nellie Savage who astonishingly gets third billing despite only being in the movie for one or two scenes at the beginning. The reason she's in only a small number of scenes is because after finishing work one day, she gets on an el train to go home. That train derails in a spectacularly amateurish bit of special effects model work, killing any number of passengers, including Mamade Mystera.
The Fox realizes he shouldn't identify Mystera at the morgue since the gig would be up, so in a humorous sequence he suggests partner-in-crime Goofy (Donald Meek, looking as bald as he did his entire a career) put on Mystera's robes! That sure isn't going to do, but the gang is in luck as somebody comes in the door looking for a job with Mystera. That young woman is Jean Oliver, played by Claudette Colbert at the very beginning of her career. She's recently gotten out of prison, and is looking for a job, and was given Mystera's name by a mutual acquaintance.
The Fox has the sad duty of informing Jean that Mystera died, but then has a flash of inspiration, which is to use Jean as Mystera. She proves adept at learning the tricks of the trade and how to cheat the people who are going to be her clients, so the Fox hires her, going down to the morgue and identifying Mystera's body as Jean Oliver so that nobody has to worry about Jean's past coming back to haunt them. Of course, Jean has reasons of her own for wanting to work for the Fox's gang.
Some time back, Jean was working as a maid for wealthy Mrs. Ramsay (Louise Closser Hale) when she fell in love with Ramsay's son. Mrs. Ramsay doesn't approve of the relationship for class reasons, so she has Jean framed for robbing her and sent to prison, which is why Jean was just getting out of prison when she shows up at the Fox's place looking for Mystera. Jean's plan is even more sinister than anything the Fox has ever thought of. She wants to kidnap Ramsay's granddaughter and raise the little girl to hate people like the Ramsays, which is a fairly wild plot even for a pre-Code.
As you can guess, things get complicated from there, especially when the Fox finds himself having reason to believe that perhaps Jean does have real clairvoyant powers, leading to a reasonably exciting finale. There's also the obligatory-for-the-era plot device of the intrepid reporter who in this case thinks he recognizes Mystera as someone he knew from childhood; of course that chldhood friend was one Jean Oliver.
The Hole in the Wall was released in early 1929, and it has all the hallmarks of a talking picture released that early in the sound era. The pacing and the elocution feel ancient compared to what we would see even in pictures from two or three years later. On the other hand, the plot is fun, and the art direction for Mystera's apartment is excellent. Fans of early sound music will probably enjoy The Hole in the Wall.
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