Category Archives: Pre-Code Reviews

The Devil Is Driving
Directed by Benjamin Stoloff
Written by P.J. Wolfson, Allen Rivkin, and Louis Weitzenkorn from an orginal story by Frank Mitchell Dazey
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

All art is theft. — David Shields

Drama about the auto theft racket is too short to really develop characters or the story.

‘Beef’ Evans (James Gleason) is a family man who has an adorable little son.  He also is the manager of a bizarre auto theft racket, in which luxury cars are stolen then given a nice new paint job on the sixth floor of an eight-story building which also contains a parking garage and a speakeasy.  The nominal boss of the operation is Jenkins (Alan Dineheart) but the real brains and unquestioned leader is a very weird deaf mute.

Beef takes pity on his friend ‘Gabby’ Denton (Edmund Lowe) and gives him a job in the auto shop.  He does not reveal the criminal activity of the business.  Time marches on and Gabby is sweet talking Jenkins’s girlfriend ‘Silver’ (Wynne Gibson) who reciprocates. Jenkins is very jealous.  Beef’s son is hit by a car but survives.  Beef tries to find the culprits and is killed for it.  The rest of the movie is devoted to Gabby and Silver’s search for the killer.

This is certainly not a must see and has the flaws common to movies of this length in this era.  But I like Gleason and Lowe a lot and was entertained.

Tribute to character actor James Gleason

The Cheat
Directed by George Abbott
Harry Hervey from a silent film script by Hector Turbull
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

“If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stake, and the quitting time.” – Chinese proverb

This solid melodrama features a rare film performance by Tallulah Bankhead with good acting all around.

Elsa Carlyle (Bankhead) is a compulsive gambler who is very in love with her husband Jeffrey (Harvey Stephens).  Hubby is a wheeler dealer in the business world.  He has a few projects pending and has asked Elsa to rein in her spending for a while.  This proves to be impossible for Elsa.  She loses $5,000 at the tables and offers her creditor a double or nothing bet on picking the high card from a deck.  She now owes him $10,000.  It as if the universe is trying to tell her something but she doesn’t listen.

She meets oriental art collector Hardy Livingston and he comes on to her strong.  The creditor starts pressing for his money.  Elsa steals the money from the charitable club of which she is treasurer.  But before paying of her debt, she invests the money in a “sure thing”.  Elsa is now $20,000 in debt.  The club doesn’t find out right away.

Hardy continues to make advances.  He talks her into wearing a very expensive jeweled Siamese costume to a party.  Finally, he offers to give her $10,000 if she will give him what he wants – and we all know what that is.  Will Elsa be able to break her losing streak?  I will stop here.  With Charles Middleton (Ming the Magnificent) as a defense attorney.

I really enjoyed this one, mainly for the acting.  It’s a strange story, originally made as a silent in 1915 by Cecil B. DeMille.  In the former film, the art collector part was played by Sessue Hayakawa and was an Burmese ivory trader.  I’m glad this one changed the race of the cad. Bankhead looks really beautiful. The film is currently available on YouTube for free.

Clip

An American Tragedy
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Written by Samuel Hoffenstein from the novel by Theodore Dreiser
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust. – John Webster

This is a case where the remake vastly surpasses the original.

If you have seen A Place in the Sun (1951), you will be familiar with the basic plot of this film.  Clyde Griffiths (Phillips Holmes) has been brought up in poverty by his parents who are missionaries.  He was a passenger in a car that hit and run, leaving a little girl dead. He flees taking many odd jobs until he applies for one with his wealthy uncle in Lycergus, New York. He becomes foreman of a shop of all female piece workers.

This is where he runs into Roberta Alden.  Although the company has a strict policy prohibiting relationships between management and labor, Phillips pursues Roberta.  She is a good girl but falls in love with him and he finally seduces her.

About this time, he meets Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee) an eligible high-society heiress. Clyde begins to move in high-class social circles.  He abruptly stops seeing Roberta. She waits a few weeks to inform him she is pregnant.  Phillips contemplates taking drastic action. The movie ends as a courtroom drama.

Sylvia Sidney, who plays the Shelley Winters part, is the best thing about this picture.  She is beautiful, charming, and pathetic when need be.  The relationship between Phillips Holmes and Frances Dee, who plays the Elizabeth Taylor part, is totally lacking in heat or chemistry.  You would not know von Sternberg directed this without reading the credits.  A curiosity.

Ladies’ Man
Directed by Lothar Mendes
Written by Herman J. Mankiewicz from a novel by Rupert Hughes
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

‘The bigtime for you is just around the corner.’ They told me that first in 1952 – boy, it’s been a long corner. If I don’t hit the bigtime in the next 25 or 30 years, I’m gonna pack in the music business and become a full-time gigolo.– Ronnie Hawkins

Paramount could also be a glamor studio and this film shows off its stars.  Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote the snappy screenplay.

Jamie Darricott  (William Powell) is a man-about-town.  He finances his lavish lifestyle by romancing wealthy ladies who return the favor by giving him expensive jewelry originally given to them by their husbands.  Currently, Jamie is having an affair with the wife (Olive Tell) of a workaholic banker, who has little time for her.  Their daughter Rachel (Carole Lombard) is also crazy about Jamie and he takes up with her as well.  Rachel is extremely jealous and has marriage on the mind.

When Jamie meets Norma Page (Kay Francis) by chance at a party, everything changes. He rapidly falls in love with her.  In the meantime, the banker has found out about his wife’s affair.  How will Jamie extricate himself from his situation so he can marry Norma?  I was not expecting that ending!

This movie is only 70 minutes long, not nearly enough time to give it any time to really develop the characters.  But the gowns are to die for and the actors are all in their prime.  I enjoyed it.

Tribute to Kay Francis

The Cocoanuts
Directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santly
Written by Morrie Riskind from a stage play by George S. Kaufman
1929/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Hammer: Hello? Yes? Ice water in 318? Is that so? Where’d you get it? Oh, you want some.

The boys were still learning the ropes of the movie business but their film debut is one of my favorite of their films.

Mr. Hammer (Groucho Marx) is the owner of a hotel that is going down the drain fast.  amison (Zeppo Marx) helps him manage it..  Things look up with the arrival of the wealthy Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont) and her daughter Polly (Mary Eaton).  Polly is in love with hotel clerk Bob Adams (Oscar Shaw), an aspiring architect.  Mrs. Potter objects strongly to the match and wants Polly to marry Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring).  But unbeknownst to all Harvey is a conman who is scheming with equally bad Penelope Martin (Kay Francis) to steal Mrs. Potter’s $100,000 diamond necklace.

Hammer’s idea to save his hotel is to auction off swamp land for development.  Either that or to seduce Mrs. Potter.

Then Chico and Harpo arrive and create chaos everywhere they go.  All this is interrupted at random times with love duets and chorus numbers.

I laughed out loud several times, mostly during Groucho’s encounters with Margaret Dumont. How I love that woman! One of the great straight “men” of all times. This movie is heavy on the musical comedy. The songs aren’t too memorable.  I always enjoy Chico and Harpo’s performances on piano and harp and this movie has some dandies. The chorus girls are also unintentionally amusing – where did they ever find them and how did they improve so noticeably in just a few years? The Monkey Doodle Do number must be seen to be believed.  Recommended.

*******************************************

The Criterion Channel is showing a series of films in its Pre-Code Paramount Collection in March.  These will probably be the next films I will cover.  The list is here.

Our Modern Maidens
Directed by Jack Conway
Written by Josephine Lovett, Marian Ainslee, and Ruth Cummings
1929/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Billie Brown: All together, children… what are *our* thoughts on leaving school?
The Girls: Men! Men! Men! Men! MEN!

Jazz age love quadrangle could have been better if someone had asked Joan Crawford to rein her performance in a little.

Billie Brown (Crawford) is the daughter of an immensely wealthy man.  As the film begins, she becomes engaged to Gil Jordan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.)., an ambitious diplomat.  They decide to keep the engagement secret.

Billie runs into hunky tycoon Glenn Abbott (Rod La Roque) on a train and decides to invite him to a huge house party she is hosting.  She wants to use her feminine wiles to get Glenn to use his influence to get Gil an assignment in Paris.  The party is wild, to say the least, complete with entertainment including imitations of famous actors by Gil and a bizarre interpretive dance by Billie.

Billie has invited her beautiful romance-novel-reading friend Kentucky (Anita Page) to live with her for the summer.  Kentucky falls madly in love with Gil and he doesn’t exactly object to her attentions.  In the meantime, Billie is going out with Glenn and he falls in love with her.  When her engagement to Gil is revealed, he is furious.  The bride, the groom, and the best friend are all miserable on the wedding day.

Joan Crawford is not a great favorite of mine and she was much too much in this movie.  She prances around like a flirtatious and precocious child.  Her dance solo must be seen to be believed.  Everybody else was good and the film has MGM glamor written all over it.

This was Crawford’s last silent movie.  She met Douglas Fairbanks Jr making this film and their real life wedding was highly publicized to promote the picture.

Shadow of the Law (AKA The Quarry)
Directed by Louis J. Gasnier
Written by John Farrow from a play by Max Martin and Jack A. Moroso
1930/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Detective Lt. Mike Kearney: Next time you want to get the truth from a woman, don’t send money – send a cop.

The always debonaire William Powell is the best thing about this creaky wrong man mystery. Pity he didn’t have better material.

John Nelson (Powell) is a wealthy man-about-town. He escorts a neighbor, Ethel Barry (Natalie Moorhead) to her apartment after a night out. When the two get there, an angry man is waiting.  Nelson intervenes to defend Ethel and in the scuffle the man is knocked out of the window.  Ethel disappears, taking Nelson’s self defense claim with her, and he is tried, convicted and sentenced to jail.  Nelson spends the rest of the movie trying to clear his name.

Well. this one was a dud.  I’ll always take a chance on William Powell, however.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ1SdfCxh3k

The Champ
Directed by King Vidor
Written by Frances Marion and Wanda Tuchock
1931/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Dink Purcell: The Champ and I ain’t fixed up swell as this, but our joint’s more lively.

This sentimental but gritty melodrama works well due to its direction and cast.

Andy Purcell (Wallace Beery) is the former Heavyweight Champion of the World.  Currently, he is living in Tijuana with his son Dink (Jackie Cooper).  He is now out of shape with drinking and gambling problems.  Every time he earns money it seems to disappear into the bottle and the dice table.  Dink does an admirable job of taking care of him.

After a night of good luck, Andy buys Dink a racehorse which Dink names Little Champ. The two prepare to enter Little Champ in a race.  Coincidentally, Dink’s mother Linda (Irene Rich) owns a horse that is in the same race.  When she meets Dink she desperately wants to take him away from his sordid life with The Champ.  She bribes Andy into letting her see Dink in her palatial San Diego digs.  Dink is unimpressed.

Andy finally lets Dink go after he is put in jail for a fight and is down to his last nickel.  But the boy runs away.  Miraculously, Andy gets an opportunity to fight the Mexican Heavyweight Champion.  Where will Dink land?

Jackie Cooper is completely winning in his part and may be the best crier of all times.  While Beery is unconvincing as a boxer, he is a loveable lug.  I was entertained.  Recommended.

Wallace Beery tied for the Best Oscar Actor with Fredric March for his performance in Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde (1931).  The film was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing, Original Story.

The Unholy Three
Directed by Jack Conway
From a book by Clarence Aaron ‘Tod’ Robbins
1930/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Professor Echo, aka Mrs. ‘Grandma’ O’Grady: Sure! From tonight on we disappear. They’ll look for the Midget, but there won’t be no Midget. They’ll find the fingerprints of the Echo, they’ll be no Echo.
Hercules: It sounds kinda creepy.
Midget: I like it. It’s unholy!
Professor Echo, aka Mrs. ‘Grandma’ O’Grady: That’s us! The Unholy Three.

Lon Chaney’s only talkie proved that he could be as versatile in sound as he was in silents.

Professor Echo (Chaney) is a ventriloquist in a side show.  He recruits his colleagues the strongman Hercules (Ivan Linow) and a midget (Harry Earles – Freaks) into his scheme for jewel thefts.  Echo disguises himself as petshop owner Grandma O’Grady and uses ventriloquism to make birds “talk” in his shop.  Hercules poses as Grandma’s son-in-law and the midget as Grandma’s daughter’s  baby.  When the buyer complains that the bird won’t talk at home, the unholy three pay a visit to show the buyer the bird still talks and case the buyers home for valuables they can steal later.

I saw this a week ago and thought it was entertaining.  Chaney, as always is pretty amazing, he not only did his own makeup but performed all his different voices in the film.  Haven’t seen the 1925 silent original directed by Tod Browning.

Clip

Midnight Mystery
Directed by George B. Seitz
Written by Beulah Marie Dix based on a play by Howard Irving Young
1930/US
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing/YouTube

Tagline:  Alive with Suspense…Topping All Melodrama for Sheer Spine-Chilling Action

This B-picture is not quite as scary as it was meant to be but does offer about an hour of entertainment.

Gregory Sloane (Hugh Trevor) invites his friends for a country weekend on a remote island off the coast of Cuba.  Among these is his fiance Sally (Betty Compson).  She is a published mystery writer.  Gregory Sloane deems this trash and demands that she give it up and concentrate on him.  Relations become strained to say the least.  Also present is Tom (Lowell Sherman), a criminal defense attorney, who is monopolizing Sally with stories from his past that could provide inspiration for a new novel.  Tom’s wife is having an affair with Gregory’s best friend Mischa.  A couple of other guests round out the party.

The story has so many twists that it would not be fair to reveal more.

This movie is extremely stage-bound and suffers from early talkie-itis.  Nonetheless I thought the story was rather clever and it kept me engaged for its short running time.