Born Reckless
Directed by John Ford
Written by Dudley Nichols from a novel by Donald Henderson Clarke
1930/US
Fox Film Corporation
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Ford proves to be less adept at gangster movies than he was at Westerns or war stories.
Mobster Louis Beretti (Edmund Lowe – least Italian looking Italian in cinema) and a couple of his cronies are given the chance to volunteer for duty in WWI as an alternative to time in the slammer. When our hero returns from the front, he tries to go straight. It’s hard since his way of doing so is to open a speakeasy and hang out with the same gang he did before he went away. Drama ensues. With Marguerite Churchill as our hero’s sister.
The WWI parts are more engaging and Ford-like than the later crime melodrama. Can be watched in full on YouTube for free. No trailer or clips though.
From a movie premier in 1929 or 1930. Footage includes: Dorothy Sebastian, Karl Dane, H.B. Warner, Nils Asther, Robert Montgomery, Anita Page, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, Erich Von Stroheim, James Kirkwood, Betty Compson, James Cruze, Jack Holt, George O’Brien, Olive Borden, Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Lois Moran, Buster Collier (William Collier, Jr.), Joseph Schildkraut, Maurice Chevalier, Nancy Carroll, Edmund Lowe & Lilyan Tashman, Joan Bennett, Norma Shearer again with Irving Thalberg, Harold Lloyd, Bessie Love, Ivan Lebedeff, Jack Oakie, Georgie Stone, Buster Collier again, Hoot Gibson, Gary Cooper, Bessie Love again, Warner Baxter, Lila Lee, Buron Fitts (L.A. County District Attorney elected in November 1928), Helene Chadwick, George O’Brien and Olive Borden again, Mary Brian, Ivan Lebedeff again, Lilyan Tashman and Edmund Lowe again, John Boles, Bebe Daniels again, Ben Lyon again, Hoot Gibson with Sally Eilers, Billie Dove, Betty Compson again (Roscoe Arbuckle appears briefly behind Betty Compson, then cutaway), Joe E. Brown, Ruby Keeler and Al Jolson, William Bakewell, Mary Brian with unidentified escort, Regis Toomey, Norma Shearer again, and Clara Bow.
