Release Date: July 19, 1931
Running Time: 53 minutes (49 minutes on existing print)
Cast: George O’Brien, Sally Eilers, Humphrey Bogart
Directed by: Irving Cummings
Adapted from the novel Trailin’ by Max Brand, one has to wonder if the problem with this film is from the source material or the adaption of it. Nothing about A Holy Terror seems to gel. Not even the title makes much sense. It seems to exist simply to con people into thinking they are going to see an exciting thriller instead of a quasi-western drama with little-to-no action of any kind. It’s almost as if the filmmakers knew they had a dud on their hands and decided the only way to possibly make their investment back was to con unsuspecting people into seeing it. I could not find a trailer for this film but I suspect that is exactly what they did.
The film stars George O’Brien as Tony Bard, a Polo player from New York who receives word that his father has accidentally been killed. The news reports that the killing is an unsolved mystery so Tony decides to travel to Wyoming where the killing happened and launch his own investigation. His inquiries stir up some of the townsfolk, including Steve Nash (Humphrey Bogart), the head ranch hand for William Drew, a man who Tony’s father had kept under surveillance for 25 years. Nash makes several attempts to harm Tony, including setting him up with a wild horse when Tony shows up to buy a steed. The film stumbles from scene to scene until eventually dropping a twist in the final moments that is hard to swallow and abruptly ends the movie.
Thrown into the mix of things is a love interest, Jerry Foster, played coyly by Sally Eilers. While the romance is shallow and obvious, it does provide some levity to an otherwise dry film. We are introduced to her an one of the most unique ways I have ever seen in a film. Tony arrives in Wyoming via a personal airplane that he manages to crash into the side of her house. He crashes right into her bathroom where she is taking a shower, a situation that would have seemed more that a little scandalous to early 30’s audiences and would have never been allowed a few years later when the Hays code took effect. Nothing else in this film lives up to this moment but Sally does manage to breathe in some life throughout the rest of the film whenever she is on screen.
A Holy Terror is an early talkie film that obviously is struggling with the new medium. It is populated with silent film stars who haven’t quite found their sea legs in the era of the talkie. O’Brien and Eilers are likable as a couple if not particularly memorable. What really sinks this film is the conflict between Nash and Tony. At no point does Tony seem to suspect Nash of anything sinister. He just keeps blindly trusting Nash and after a while we lose faith in Tony as a protagonist. The final scene with the big twist is also ridiculous and poorly played out. It felt like the filmmakers had a set running time they had to hit and just ran out of time to finish it off properly. It should be noted that the only copy of A Holy Terror I could find was missing a few minutes in the middle. No better copy was available as of the time I viewed it for this review.
A Holy Terror is a relic of it’s time. It doesn’t appear to western fans, mystery fans, or romance fans. It’s too short to really overstay it’s welcome but needed more to make it a complete story. I have not read the source novel to make a comparison so I don’t know who is to blame for the thinness of the plot but if that lies in the novel then the screenwriters should have found a way to rectify that. If it lies entirely on the screenwriter then they did a disservice to Max Brand when they made this. Either way it is not a good film and should be only watched by Bogart fans who insist on seeing everything he is in. Even those die hard fans will find it hard to find any enjoyment in this.
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