Action in the North Atlantic (1943) ***

Release Date: May 21, 1943

Running Time: 127 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey

Directed By: Lloyd Bacon, Byron Haskin and Raoul Walsh

Action in the North Atlantic is the type of film designed to promote volunteering for active service during the ongoing World War. It is filled with daring heroics as well as patriotic sermonizing, having one character make a selfish statement about staying home and avoiding the conflict only to have several other men preach to him, and to the audience, about how conflicts like this are about more than just the individual. It reeks of propagandizing, yet it manages to not sink underneath all that veneer. Through all its rah rahing about civic duty and self sacrifice, it never skips over the very human dramas of the lives of the men doing these things.

The film begins with the SS Northern Star, an oil tanker under the command of Steve Jarvis (Raymond Massey) and his friend and first officer Joe Rossi (Humphrey Bogart). The ship is attacked and sunk by a German U-Boat and the few survivors are cast adrift for eleven days. Upon rescue, most of the survivors seek out another assignment which ends up being the SS Sea Witch, part of a convoy made up of ships from a multitude of nations bringing war supplies to the Soviet port of Murmansk. Prior to taking command of the Sea Witch, Jarvis spends some much needed time at home with his long suffering but understanding wife. Rossi, on the other hand, meets a women singing at a cafe and, against his usual inclinations, gets married. His new bride, Pearl (Julie Bishop), knows he will have to ship out soon but struggles with the idea of being alone and maybe losing her new husband. An understanding Jarvis gives Pearl the phone number to his his own wife with the understanding the two women can support and comfort each other.

While transporting the supplies on board the Sea Witch, attacks come from several U-Boats forcing the ships to scatter and leading the Sea Witch to get separated from the convoy. This leads to plenty of losses on both sides and a deadly cat and mouse game between the Sea Witch and a persistent U-Boat intent on sinking them.

There is a lot of spectacle on display here. This is evident right from the start as we get a prolonged sequence involving the sinking of the Northern Star. Oil is spilled into the ocean and fire rages everywhere, including on top of the water. Men struggle to escape, only to be killed by the very water they are escaping to. One man gives his life rescuing another who has gotten trapped in his quarters during the bombardment. The two make it off the ship and into the water but only one escapes the flames and makes it to safety. It is harrowing and a clear message about self sacrifice. Later scenes with the convoy are equally as engaging if not quite as intense.

The two leads, Bogart and Massey do good jobs at humanizing their characters in no small part thanks to their spouses at home. All the self sacrifice and courage talk would do no good if we never saw what the potential consequences were back home. It is a clever touch that should have been played out even more but is limited primarily to the few minutes in between the Northern Star and the Sea Witch. Massey portrays Jarvis as a firm, yet human Captain with genuine affection for his first officer. When he sees Rossi with Pearl, not understanding Rossi has just gotten married, he is stern and dismissive of her, thinking his friend has wasted money and time on another harbor fling. Once he sees that the two are married and in love he is immediately retentive of his reaction and warmly welcomes the women as a part of their inner circle. Bogart is a little more stiff, delivering his lines with confidence and authority but occasionally stumbling whenever he is called upon to sermonize.

What it all boils down to is a film with a very basic story that fills it out with human drama and a lot of grand standing. It goes down smoother thanks to some great performances and more than a few quirky characters that round out the crew. It plays like a propaganda film while making sure not to drown out the humanity in it all. This makes for a decent war drama if not quite a masterpiece.

The Enforcer (1951) **1/2

Release Date: January 25, 1951

Running Time: 85 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ted de Corsica, Everett Sloane

Directed By: Bretaigne Windust

It is perhaps a daring move to tell a story about a murder investigation and obfuscate the entire affair with flashbacks inside of more flashbacks. Yet that is exactly what director Bretaigne Windust and screenwriter Martin Rackin have done with 1951’s The Enforcer, a film determined to bleed any real joy out of an already joyless police procedural film. Some may gleam enjoyment out of seeing clues examined over and over again in a frustratingly laid out way but the average movie goer will find it at times tedious and frustrating.

The Enforcer opens with District Attorney Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Bogart) holding racketeer and career criminal Joseph Rico (Ted de Corsica) for questioning. The real man Ferguson wants is Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), a particularly nasty criminal known to have committed murders yet there has never been any evidence to convict him. Rico can provide that evidence but he fears that, even with police protection, Mendosa’s men will get to him anyway. In an escape attempt, Rico falls to his death leaving Ferguson no one to testify against Mendoza. This forces Ferguson to have to go back over the case files for every detail in a desperate attempt to find any possible clue that may have been missed. As he does this the film flashes back to the investigation, and flashes back again and again.

There are some good moments amongst all the flashbacks. The intimidation and breaking of “Big Babe” Lazick and the subsequent scenes of his ill treatment at the hands of his fellow gangsters is both sad and pathetic. He has a wife and child to protect and child and when the wife is threatened with jail time and the child with foster care, Lazick confesses to be a part of a troop of killers. He reveals certain code words that the gangsters use when on the phone to hide their true intent such as “contract” and “hit” as if these code words would be interpreted innocently by anyone bugging the phones. The troop are hired killers used to kill people in such a way that whomever hired them would have an alibi and be exempt from suspicion. This dates back to the one murder Rico witnessed Mendoza commit himself, the one murder Rico’s testimony could be used to send Mendoza to the chair. 

This specific murder happened many years prior but was complicated by a couple of eye witnesses who saw Mendoza and Rico at the scene. The witnesses were Angela and her father. The father was later identified and killed but until recently Angela’s whereabouts were unknown. Later, Mendoza finds out where she is and has her killed by his men. But a mix up results in the girl’s roommate killed instead. When both Mendoza and Ferguson both discover this it becomes a race to either save or kill the one person still alive that could put Mendoza in the electric chair.

Much of the investigation is straight forward and devoid of any real life. Some of it is brutal including a harrowing scene where a mass grave is located filled with dozens of bodies. We don’t see the bodies but instead get treated to rows of shoes and other items used in an attempt to identify all the victims. It is unnerving a bit but neutered by the era of the film and a workmanlike staging of the scene. It is talkie and dry with few moments to liven things up. This plays out much the same in the many other moments through the investigation, really only livening up during the finale when everyone is looking for the real Angela.

The Enforcer is not a bad film, but it is a hard film to really find much of interest. Everett Sloane is fine as the villainous Mendoza but he gets little screen time here. Bogart is almost sleepwalking through a part that doesn’t require any real stretching of his acting ability. He barely emotes here beyond looking irritated that his prize witness has gone and fallen to his death in a fruitless attempt to climb to freedom. The film has lots of story to tell and lots of wheels rolling but fails to make much of it compelling enough to bother trying to make sense of all the flashbacks and non-chronological storytelling. It ends up making the whole film suffer from a lack of energy and investment. Some might find enjoyment in the matter-of-fact storytelling but most will come away from it disappointed.

Stand-In (1937) ***

Release Date: October 29, 1937

Running Time: 90 Minutes

Starring: Leslie Howard, Joan Blondell, Humphrey Bogart

Directed By: Tay Garnett

Leslie Howard seems perfectly cast as a young up-and-comer banker dispatched to Hollywood to deal with a movie studio that appears to be bleeding money during the depression. It wasn’t based on a true story but the events here were happening to many of the studios on Poverty Row during this time and thus was topical, at least to people in the business. It tackled some serious issues for the time, yet managed to instill a level of humor to the proceedings that keeps it from bogging down in those issues. While the average audience goer of the time may not have related to the Hollywood scene, they could easily relate to the humanity behind it, a delicate balance this film manages to handle well.

Leslie Howard plays Atterbury Dodd, the aforementioned young banker. “Colossal Pictures” is in danger of folding and has an offer to be purchased from the bank and closed down but Atterbury advises against it, stating that he can turn things around by going out to the studio himself, take the human element out of things and make it profitable. What he finds upon arrival is frivolous spending all around and a crash course in what Hollywood is all about. Along the way he meets Stand-In actress Lester Plum (Joan Blondell), a former child star who now works as a stand-in for Thelma Cheri (Marla Shelton), the studio’s star actress. Lester is quirky, and quickly falls for the inexperienced Atterbury who naively misses all the signs of her infatuation. Producer Doug Quintain (Humphrey Bogart), former lover of Cheri, is struggling to bring a film, Sex and Satan, in on time thanks in large part to its actress and is feeling the heat from on top. An advanced screening of Sex and Satan doesn’t go over well and Atterbury has serious reservations over how the motion picture business can ever turn a profit without serious renovations, changes that may hurt the employees but save the studio from the chopping block. 

Stand-In takes shots at a lot of different targets, not just the motion picture industry. It also finds targets in banking, corporate greed, and the callousness of big business. Everybody in the film are painted broadly to the point that no one comes across as a real person. This plagues virtually the entire film only occasionally offering glimpses to real characters behind the facade. Perhaps this was done on purpose as a statement against vain actors and actresses and the people in charge of them. If so, it doesn’t quite work. It is just too broad. That’s not to say it isn’t interesting to watch, just not easy to invest in the plight. It can’t even be considered a farce or a screwball comedy as the subject it is tackling was a real issue that still is valid nearly ninety years later with studios buying out other studios and putting many artists out of work.

The biggest saving grace for this film is the chemistry between Lester and Atterbury. They have a witty repartee that lightens up every scene they share. Her flirtations coupled with his complete lack of understanding make for some very fun moments. Of particular note are the scenes where Lester is trying to teach Atterbury how to dance or when she gives him a demonstration of a Ju-Jitsu  move. Both scenes end with him blissfully unaware he is hurting her feelings as he remains oblivious of her feelings for him. 

A film like this can only end one way and thus has no real surprises to offer. In this case it must survive almost entirely on the journey and not the destination. Fortunately, even with few truly realistic characters in the mix, it manages to entertain enough to get by. If it weren’t for the screen presence of the two leads, specifically Joan Blondell, this film wouldn’t work as is. Humphrey Bogart is game but woefully miscast as the jilted lover of Cheri who finds himself being ousted from his position thanks to a spoiled actress and a stubborn director. He never seems comfortable here and leaves no impression whatsoever. 

Ultimately Stand-In is an awkward juxtaposition of real-life issues and broad comedy. It’s not sharp enough in its assessment of the Hollywood Studio system to qualify as satire and it’s not sincere enough to really be a message movie, either. It lies firmly in the middle and would have become completely forgettable had it not been for Howard and Blondell’s on screen chemistry. This chemistry manages to smooth out some of the rough passages making the film at least palatable.

All Through The Night (1942) ***

Release Date: January 10, 1942

Running Time: 107 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne, Peter Lorre

Directed By: Vincent Sherman

A cursory glance at the plot of All Through The Night will yield a poor perception of this film. It’s plot involving kidnapping, murder and undercover Nazis plotting sabotage would seem like a typical early World War II film when the Nazi scare was at it’s infancy. Yet the serious topic that makes up the backbone of this film is juxtaposed with a degree of humor not quite as dense as that of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator but at times nearly as silly. It is an odd mixture of comedy, satire and legitimate suspense that makes it hard to pigeonhole it in any way.

Alfred “Gloves” Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) is a big shot Broadway gambler who loves his cheesecake. Not just any cheesecake, though, but only that of Miller’s bakery. When Miller disappears, Gloves’s mother is suspicious of foul play and insists he look into it. A quick investigation reveals the baker has been killed. At the crime scene a nightclub singer, Leda Hamilton (Kaaren Verne) shows up looking for Miller. When she hears he is dead she disappears without explanation. When Gloves traces her back to the club it leads to more murder, this time with evidence left behind implicating Gloves, himself. The plot thickens as Gloves must hide out from the police as well as prove his innocence, leading him and his men to uncover a conspiracy involving Nazi fifth columnists, Nazis undercover with the intent to undermine the USA, and a plot to destroy a battleship in New York harbor. With no proof but his own word, Gloves cannot rely on the police to help stop these men and their deadly plots.

Based on that plot summary alone it would seem like this is just another in a long line of us vs them films. Back in the 1940’s everyone was churning out films about the evil Nazis or the Japanese, especially during the early stages of the war where the real horrors of what was going on over there were not yet fully known. Chaplin took shots at Hitler. The Three Stooges tackled both the Germans and the Japanese. Even Looney Tunes had their fair share of shorts addressing the subject. While this is nowhere near as broad as those were, it nevertheless attacks its subject with tongue firmly in mouth. This is evident from the very first scene where Bogart is sitting in a cafe enjoying his meal while the servers are stressing out over a missing delivery of Miller’s cheesecake. Gloves is accompanied by two comedic legends, Phil Silvers, who was already an established performer at this time, and Jackie Gleason who was relatively new when this was filmed. Both actors were on contract, getting paid while having no projects to work on and thus were shoehorned into this film. Neither is in top form here but Phil Silvers manages to bring in some of his manic energy into the scenes towards the end of the film. Between the two of them, Bogart and the rest of his men, there is some hilarious double-talk and witty dialogue that sets you up for what kind of a film this will be.

The tone shifts however whenever we are away from Gloves and his men. We see this when the baker, Miller, is confronted by Pepi (Peter Lorre). Pepi has a job for Miller to do and when the man refuses, Pepi kills him brutally. This is the typical slimy performance that was Peter Lorre’s bread and butter and he is sufficiently menacing here. Later we will be introduced to his boss Hall Edding (Conrad Veidt), a man who played Nazi leaders perfectly in films like Casablanca, Nazi Agent and this one. His final role the following year would see him switch sides and aid in the fight against the third reich. 

While the suspense and intrigue is genuine, so is the humor and for the most part the two coexist. That’s not to say every comedic moment hits the mark. There is an ongoing joke about one of Gloves’s men always being kept from his girl, Annabelle, and how it’s breaking up their relationship. This was funny the first couple of times it comes up but by the time Annabelle shows up in person it is no longer funny and just plain annoying. Some of the plot points such as when Gloves takes the police to the Nazi headquarters midway through the film are obvious and lack any surprises. These little stumbles are completely redeemed late in the game when Gloves and one of his men, Sunshine (William Demarest), infiltrate the Nazi’s secret meeting, knocking out two real Nazi’s who just arrived from out of state. Unfortunate for Gloves, he is asked to speak to the group about the planned explosives for the battleship and must use his wits and a lot of double talk to try and bluff his way out of the situation. It is easily the funniest moment in the entire film. In the end, the police arrive and a brawl breaks out that could have been from one of the Three Stooges shorts complete with Phil Silvers doing a bit where he heils every man knocked his way and if they salute back he conks them on the head.

The final confrontation between Gloves and Edding is a tad anticlimactic but gets the job done. Everything is wrapped up with a neat bow and they live happily ever after. It’s the type of film that would seem a little too on the nose for any other type of film but works just fine here. The only sad note is the news that Leda’s father, who was being held in a concentration camp to force her to assist the Nazi’s, has died. This motivates her to speak up now that she has nothing left to lose. 

The tones are sometimes at odds with each other and can shift from laugh out loud to genuinely suspenseful. This mostly works but not always. To help smooth out the router passages, Bogart and his men lend a level of levity and, occasional earnestness to the proceedings. These are not star making roles but, especially Bogart, they are flashy roles that would help cement many of them as solid actors and performers. Bogart would move on to his biggest role yet later the same year as Rick Blaine in Casablanca along with co-stars Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, the former also starred with Bogart the previous year in The Maltese Falcon. This film has a lot going for it, only stumbling when the plot becomes to obvious. Still, it’s fun and a little frenetic, making it absolutely enjoyable to watch.

Sahara (1943) ***1/2

Release Date: November 11, 1943

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, J. Carol Nash

Directed By: Zoltan Korda

Set against the backdrop of the British retreat during the Western Desert Campaign in World War II, Sahara presents some breathtaking visuals of the dangers of desert warfare and the heroics of the men entrenched there. The film opens with a brief historical note about the men training for desert warfare in actual battle conditions before dropping us directly into the fray. We get no scenes showing us who any of the characters were before the war and very little in the dialogue to shade these characters in, yet they don’t feel generic. There are tropes, of course, but we see throughout the action the person behind these facades and get a good solid sense of the characters of these men. 

Humphrey Bogart stars as Sgt. Joe Gunn, commander of the Lulubelle, a U.S. Army M3 Lee desert tank assigned to the Libyan desert. They have recently become separated from their unit during a general retreat after the fall of Tobruk and are headed south in hopes of reconnecting with their unit, however radio contact has been lost and they are uncertain of where to rendezvous with the rest of the group. Along with the U.S. soldiers assigned to the Lulubelle there is also a small group of British officers led by medical officer Captain Halliday who defers his command to Gunn as he commands the tank. The men are running dangerously low on water and, after running into a Sudanese Sergeant and his Italian prisoner, Giuseppe, almost leave the Italian behind rather than ration the water even further. However, Gunn has a change of heart and allows the man the travel with them rather than die out in the sand. Later they pick up a Nazi pilot after they shoot him down. Gunn shows both prisoners humanity even after the Nazi doesn’t reciprocate. 

The men eventually manage to reach a well, the last they would be able to reach before succumbing to the elements, but it is only providing a small trickle of water that may dry up at any moment. While stockpiling what little they can two German advance scouts arrive and are captured by the Americans. From one of the men information is gleamed that nearly five hundred more Germans are on their way, desperate for the water. Gunn and his men must decide whether to flee or risk sure death in a bold attempt to delay the Germans while a single man is sent ahead in an attempt to secure reinforcements. 

Nearly a third of the film takes place during the final siege. It is bloody and violent, and adequately conveys the true desperate situation both sides are in. The camera doesn’t shy away from showing the dirty, savaged faces of the men, dehydrated and exhausted, yet resolved to make a stand. This tension is broken up brilliantly with some ingenious tactics by Gunn as he schemes to show the water starved Nazis that his, Gunn’s, men have water to spare. He has two men pantomiming bathing themselves in water when they in reality have none to spare. The show is believed, yet doesn’t have the desired effect with the Nazi commander who would rather die fighting than give up all their weapons in exchange for the water. It’s a brutal standoff in which many people on both sides don’t make it.

This is a gorgeous film to look at. Watching it on a small screen in the comforts of your living room will not sufficiently convey the sheer magnitude of this production. It simply must be seen on the big screen to be completely appreciated. If you can find one without any air conditioning in the middle of August that would be even better. This is not a war movie designed to be military propaganda, pushing the glamour and heroics but ignoring the true horrors of the conflict. 

This could have been a truly dour film. What saves it from that and elevates it into the realms of classic cinema is the performers. There are a lot of interesting choices made in bringing the characters to life. We get the two men passing money back and forth between each other as the make bets on Gunn’s command decisions. We also get Frenchie (Louis Mercier) who brings a level of humor to virtually every line of dialogue he spouts. Even among the two POW’s we have an interesting dynamic. The Italian, Giuseppe (J. Carrol Naismith) is a sympathetic character, humanized by his pictures of his family and his lack of love for Mussolini. He is in the conflict because of his country, not because of any dreams of domination and prejudices. The same cannot be said for the Nazi, Captain von Schletow (Kurt Krueger). His motives are purely for the Nazi party and Germany, looking for any opportunity to turn the tide against the Americans and escape.

The story is taut, full of great performances and set pieces. During the climax it does step towards glorifying heroics in the face of sure defeat, yet it never glamorizes it. This is a dusty and dirty film and it never says away from depicting the sheer desperation both sides faced in this campaign. It is shot beautifully and convincingly and looks glorious when projected on as big a screen as possible.

Beat the Devil (1953) ***

Release Date: November 24, 1953

Running Time: 94 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Edward Underdown, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre

Directed By: John Huston

When you pair legendary director John Huston with an all star cast that includes Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Robert Morley, and a pre James Bond era Bernard Lee, you have certain expectations. Add in a screenplay co-written by Truman Capote and based on a thriller novel by noted reformed communist author Claud Cockburn (under the pseudonym James Helvick) and those expectations hit the stratosphere. It is perhaps those lofty expectations that made Beat the Devil such a disappointment to audiences back in 1953. Upon initial screenings several minutes had to be excised, lost to time until only a few years ago when the uncut version was finally rescued and restored. The reception to this film upon initial release was bad enough that its star, Bogart, who lost quite a bit of his own money financing it, disliked it profusely. This disdain also saw the film’s copyright go without renewal leading it to drop into the public domain. Its reputation in therefore a bad one, yet to judge it so is being too harsh. The film is no Casablanca, yet there is a campiness to it that makes the proceedings a true delight to witness and the cast is clearly having a ball playing such broad characterizations amidst what should be a serious story, yet somehow is not. 

Billy Dannreuther (Bogart) and his wife Maria (Gina Lollobrigida) have fallen on rough times leading the two to reluctantly team up with four criminals: Peterson (Robert Morley), Jules (Peter Lorre), Ravello (Marco Tully) and Major Jack Ross (Ivor Barnard), who are scheming to illicitly acquire some Uranium rich land in British East Africa. The six of them are in port in Italy waiting for the ship they chartered to be repaired before they can set out for Africa. There, Billy and Maria become acquainted with another married couple, the oddly paired Harry (Edward Underdown) and his wife Gwendolen (Jennifer Jones). Harry and his wife are booked on the same ship bound for Africa. Harry is a stereotypical Englishman while his wife is flighty and prone to exaggeration. Gwendolen soon begins an affair with Billy while Maria is flirting with Harry. Gwendolen also talks up her husband in such a way that the men begin to suspect the couple may be attempting to get the land, themselves.

There are many great set pieces making up Beat the Devil, some of them technologically impressive for the time. When Peterson determines Harry may be trying to beat them to the land he abandons his fear of flying and insists on taking a plane at once. While driving to the plane their vehicle starts acting up prompting Peterson, Billy and the driver to get out and push. Unfortunately they are on a slope and the vehicle gets away from them, cruising down the road, amazingly taking corners, before finally crashing through a wall and falling into the ocean below. News of the crash gets back to the others who assume Peterson and Billy have been killed in the crash. The remaining men in turn immediately look for a way to spin this to their advantages, including Ravello who takes Harry into his confidence over the uranium scheme. 

In the original book the men never make it to Africa. That would have never worked for a film so, correctly, it was changed making the final act more cinematic. Instead, the group end up shipwrecked and captured by the Arab soldiers, the leader of whom sees right through their phony stories. Billy, through a series of lies convinces the leader to send them back to Italy right where they left off. It is just the kind of ending a film like this needs. They go around in a circle and no one gets what they really want. A letter arrives from Harry, who escaped the ship before the engines had failed, leading to the shipwreck. This letter punctuates the shaggy-dog aspect of this tale so poignantly that even Bogart’s Billy is forced into laughter, proclaiming loudly, “This is the end, the end!”

Unfortunately this film failed to find much of an audience when it originally released and was panned by critics at the time. But time has been favorable to it and a reexamination of it shows that it is actually a very well made farce, designed to string audiences along for a ridiculous ride filled with humor and oddities. From the first moments we see Peterson, Julius and Ravello walking with sole focus through Italy (Gwendolen announces they must be desperate men as none of them looked at her legs when passing by), we get the tone of this film. John Huston strikes that tone perfectly throughout. It failed to impress critics back in 1953 and audiences didn’t flock to it either. Since then, Bogart fans and John Huston fans have discovered it and breathed new life into what could have been a forgotten film. We are all the more fortunate for it as it is a wonderful film well worth the viewing.

Up the River (1930) **

Release Date: October 12, 1930

Running Time: 92 minutes

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, Claire Luce, Warren Hymer

Directed By: John Ford

Legendary director John Ford who would later go on to make many films with the likes of John Wayne, Henry Ford and Lee Marvin, helmed 1930’s Up the River, his only film starring Humphrey Bogart. Ford had a career that spanned from the early 1910’s all the way into the 70’s. When his failing health finally ended his amazing and long running career. He cut his teeth in the silent era and it is this influence that is most obvious when watching Up the River. Right out the gate it is obvious that this is a film right on the edge of the transition between silent films and talkies. Title cards crop up from time to time to explain the setting or the situation much the same way they did when there was no better way to convey this information. It was a crutch early filmmakers relied on until they found more natural ways to do it. The story also falls on vaudevillian tropes that better served the silent era such as sight gags sans witty dialogue. Other conventions, some no longer politically correct, also date this film. It is a film of its time; a time capsule into a world that no longer exists.

The story is almost non-existent here. Steve (Humphrey Bogart) is being held at a southern prison along with his friends and fellow inmates Saint Louis (Spencer Tracy in his motion picture debut), and Dannemora Dan (Warren Homer). Steve is one of the trustees, well regarded by the guards and the warden, and entrusted in checking in newly incarcerated prisoners. One of these new prisoners is Judy Fields (Claire Luce) who has taken the rap for con man Frosby (Morgan Wallace) and is serving a year. The two fall in love and promise to marry once both are free. Steve finishes up his sentence several months before Judy and travels home to his family who know nothing of his incarceration. But Frosby follows him and, using this knowledge, blackmails Steve into defrauding the family and neighborhood with bad bank bonds. Word gets back to Saint Louis and Dan who break out of prison, during a talent show for the inmates, to deal with the fraudster.

What becomes apparent early on is that Bogart is uncomfortable in front of the screen here. He had appeared in a couple of short films before this but was relatively new to film acting at this time and that shows on screen. It wouldn’t take long for him to find his niche but it wouldn’t happen here. Two years later he would appear in his first gangster role and settle comfortably into that stereotype for the next decade. Here, he is trying to play a part that is outside his comfortable range and it comes across forced and unconvincing. 

In stark contrast, Spencer Tracy, who also was new to the scene, is spot on in the role of Saint Louis, a career convict who is loyal enough to break out of prison to help his friend and honest (?) enough to check back in when it’s all over. Tracy is having a blast in such a broadly drawn character showing clearly that he was born for the screen. He has just enough dark humor to him that we can see in the right circumstances he could be a dangerous man, yet we are drawn to him anyway. It’s a shame the rest of the film is not up to his level.

The threadbare story coupled with some really poor pacing problems really sink this picture. Scenes have a tendency to go on well past the point of necessity. This is most obvious during the talent show where while acts are on display. This is a holdover to the days of vaudeville where audiences expected more of a variety show then just a straight up narrative. It may have played better in the 30’s but modern audiences will find it disrupts the pacing. 

The comedy is very hit and miss, too. Some of the bits are outright hilarious. Saint Louis’s knife throwing act is dark and hilarious. This comes back in another humorous scene on board a train as he prepares to throw a small knife into the floor he and Dan are sitting on and, presumably, between the fingers of Dan’s outstretched hand. It’s funny and also a little unnerving, enhancing the humor. The final set piece involving a prison baseball game is the best scene in the entire movie, landing joke after joke, many of which would become clichés in later films. Other moments are just plain bizarre such as the inclusion of twin girls who speak everything in harmony. Moments like this hit the ground with a heavy thud. Even worse then that, though, is a music and dance number involving convicts in black face, including several closeup shots of a black prisoner laughing uproariously at what now days is highly offensive.

Up the River is a product of its time. Many MANY elements here have not aged well. If it weren’t for the brilliant performance of Spencer Tracy this might be forgotten amongst so many other films of the era. It has a unsatisfying resolution to the Frosby plot line, making that whole part of the story feel more like filler than an actual integral part of the story. It runs too long and spends too much time away from Saint Louis and Dan, who is playing the straight man to Spencer Tracy and thus fails to make much of an impression on his own. The film is hardly a train wreck but is so tonally off that it makes it a chore at times to watch all the way through. 

Chain Lightning (1950) **

Release Date: February 25, 1950

Running Time: 94 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey

Directed By: Stuart Heisler

Chain Lightning is a prime example of a film with not enough story stretching things out to meet a runtime. The inevitable result is a film that drags for large periods of time and few scenes to liven things up. Further dampening things is a total lack of chemistry between the two leads. Humphrey Bogart and Eleanor Parker are not a good match and scenes meant to instill an emotional response in the audience fall flat as we feel nothing at all. Scenes involving the test pilot flights liven it up a little but everything comes crashing down when the drama is more earthbound.

Lt. Colonel Matt Brennan (Humphrey Bogart) was a wartime pilot in Europe during the war. On the ground he has a girl, Jo (Eleanor Parker) he wants to marry but is unable to secure the proper permissions when his commanding officer is unavailable shortly before Matt is to ship out to America. While in America, he stops corresponding with Jo, losing contact with her. The war ends and he finds himself wandering aimlessly from job to job until he is offered a position as a test pilot working for the Willis Aircraft Company as the chief test pilot for an experimental high speed jet fighter the JA-3 designed by Carl Troxell (Richard Whorf), a man he knew during the war. Matt’s old flame, Jo, is also there working as  Willis’s (Raymond Massey) secretary.

The JA-3’s tests go well and Willis has an idea to show it off by flying it from Los Angelos to Honolulu. Matt has other ideas, thinking that with some modifications the JA-3 could set out from Nome, Alaska, fly over the North Pole and land in Washington D.C., a trip over double the original plan. The trip will only be possible with modifications to the fuel tanks and the addition of detachable rockets to get the plane to 90,000 feet where it will meet less wind resistance and thus save fuel. Carl is against the flight, though, wanting to push his new plane, the JA-4 that he feels will be ready and superior to the JA-3.

When this film is focusing of flight sequences it is cruising, taught and engaging. The scenes, especially the flight over the North Pole, are exciting and well staged. Some of the effects are badly dated but that is more a sign of the times then poor production values. If more of the film took place in the air this would be a better picture. But alas there is way too much emphasis placed elsewhere.

The relationship between Matt and Jo is given quite a bit of screen time. Quite simply it doesn’t work. There is no heat between the two actors. When Matt finally gets to kiss Jo it is flat and not exciting. We see two actors playing a scene rather than two people deeply in love. When the two of them are together neither of them seems like they want to be there. The writing does them no favors either.

The pacing is glacial most of the time, livening up only during those flight scenes. This makes for an uneven film that mainly struggles because it has too little story for a feature film. It needed to be either tightened up or give the actors more story to work with. As it stands it is just two slow to hold interest throughout. 

Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) ****

Release Date: November 26, 1938

Running Time: 97 minutes

Starring: James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, The Bowery Boys

Directed By: Michael Curtiz

This film is widely considered to be one of the best films of all time thanks in large part to the dedication of its lead actor, James Cagney, who was first choice to play the lead role of “Rocky” Sullivan, the man whose life was forever changed by being just a little bit slower than his lifelong friend, Jerry (Pat O’Brien). Rocky’s sacrifice in the films first act, refusing to rat on his friend in childhood, even manages to save Jerry from a similar fate, something that will be echoed in the film’s final act. There is a beautiful symmetry to those two scenes that help elevate this above other gangster films of the time to really make this one stand above its contemporaries and gain the distinction of being one of the greatest films of all time. 

The film opens in 1920 when youths Rocky and Jerry attempt to steal from a railway car. They are overheard and flee the scene. But Jerry is the faster runner and escapes while Rocky is captured and sentenced to several years in juvenile detention. Rocky refuses to give up his friend and takes the sentence all to himself. His time in juvie leads to further criminal acts and more time behind bars until eventually, eighteen years later he is paroled and back on the streets. He had been sentenced to three years in jail for armed robbery and took the rap in exchange for a $100,000 payout from the robbery by his partner and lawyer Jim Frazier (Humphrey Bogart). 

Upon release from prison, Rocky visits the old neighborhood and discovers Jerry is still there, now a priest who oversees many of the youths in the area, determined to help them avoid criminal activities and grow up to live productive lives. The two are genuinely glad to see each other and Jerry helps Rocky secure a place to stay, renting from a young woman the two knew growing up, Laury (Ann Sheridan). When Rocky visits his old partner, Jim, he is promised the $100,000 by the end of the week and is given some spending money to tide him over, money that is soon after stolen from him from a group of young hoodlums played by the Bowery Boys. Rocky tracks them down easily enough taking his money back and earning their adoration. Meanwhile, Jim has no intent on paying Rocky the money and is intent instead on killing him. Jerry is also justified in his concern that Rocky’s influence on the young boys will lead them to idolize the gangster way of life and want to emulate it.

The real power in this film is its message of how adoration can lead people astray and how a man, even one as bad as Rocky, can do the right thing from time to time to save those he truly cares about. He himself may be beyond saving but the generation behind him may still stand a chance if steered in the right direction. The Bowery Boys were the perfect choice to depict that here having gained a reputation themselves for mischievous behavior both in front of and behind the scenes. They never fail to hit the right notes as both aggressive bad boys as well as sympathetic characters in need of a good role model. We see both sides of that coin throughout this film.

If you haven’t seen this film I will not spoil the final scene. I will say, however, that it is a powerful moment in cinematic history that never fails to bring with it a degree of emotional response rarely felt when watching fiction. It strikes the perfect note to end the film on and both Cagney and O’Brien are perfect in it. There is a level of sadness to it but it is also steeped heavily in triumph and gladness that never fails to move me no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

The acting is top notch and the moral of the story is spot on. This movie is leaps and bounds above any gangster film of any era. The only real weak spot would have to be the generic casting of Humphrey Bogart who was, at this point in his career, coasting on roles of this sort. He’s not bad here but the part is poorly underwritten in an otherwise well written script. But this movie isn’t really about Jim and his attempt to kill Rocky rather than pay him. It is about Rocky, Jerry and the Bowery Boys and that’s where it hits it out of the park. Everything else is just background noise.

The Big Shot (1942) **1/2

Release Date: June 13, 1942

Running Time: 82 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Irene Manning, Richard Travis

Directed By: Lewis Seiler

After High Sierra hit the screen but before Humphrey Bogart was to take on his most iconic role as Rick Blaine in Casablanca, Bogart made one final gangster film for Warner Brothers. It is a perfectly acceptable film for what it is but fails to be anything more than that. High Sierra feels more like the end of an era for Bogart than this and thus The Big Shot comes across more like an encore that ends a show on a less than stellar note. Fortunately, many years later, Bogart would return to the genre one last time in The Desperate Hours, his second to last film, to show he could play criminals better than most. Here, though, there is nothing too exceptional about his character or the story.

Duke (Bogart) is a gangster who was once a Big Shot. He has spent time in prison thrice and another conviction would be a life sentence. He has a history with Lorna Fleming Irene Manning) , wife to Martin Fleming (Stanley Ridges), a crooked attorney who wants to hire Duke for an armored car robbery. When Lorna shows up at Duke’s apartment the night of the planned robbery, Duke skips out on the heist which goes south leaving people dead on both sides. An eye witness is badgered by the police into claiming Duke was there when he wasn’t. Duke turns on Martin, threatening to expose his part in the heist if an alibi isn’t manufactured for him. Martin agrees but changes his mind when he finds out Duke was with Lorna that night.

The man supplying Duke with an alibi is proved to be lying in court and the two go to jail, Duke for life and his alibi, George (Richard Travis), for a year for perjury. Eventually, Duke escapes prison but George, who attempted to stop Duke from escaping, is accused of being an accessory that ended up with one of the guards killed. George is now being threatened with a murder charge and a much lengthier prison sentence. 

This film is pretty rote and unoriginal. That isn’t to say there is nothing here of interest. The heist scene involving several gunmen and the armored car is staged well and the stunt work is first rate and shockingly violent at times. This, however, is at odds with the portrayal of the police throughout the remainder of the film. They are shown as incompetent and inattentive, failing to even notice when Duke strolls into the police station to turn himself in once he establishes his alibi. They are also shown to be determined to pin the crime on someone without any evidence at all, more interested in getting Duke than proving he was even there in the first place. This causes us to struggle having someone to root for as we also cannot get behind Duke. 

Fortunately there is George who shows up in time to give us a truly good character to stand behind. George is a man who is in need of some quick money so he can marry his sweetheart even though her family doesn’t approve. When he is sent to prison he tries to befriend Duke but gets nowhere with the man. We like his character enough so that when he is wrongfully accused of colluding with Duke and an accessory to murder we want Duke to do the right thing and exonerate the man. 

The finale of the film is well staged but struggles with the limitations of a low budget film from this era. There is a chase scene in the mountains on snow covered roads that involves several cars and motorcycles. Unfortunately, well the stunts are first rate the rest of it is diminished by some obvious reuse of footage and sped up frames to give the illusion of speed. It’s still exciting to watch, and the ending is heartbreaking, but better cinematography would have really sold the illusion better.

In the end this is really an unexceptional film that could have been so much more than it ended up being. It holds the distinction of being the last gangster film Bogart would ever do for Warner Brothers and the last time he would play such a role until thirteen years later when he would star in the superb The Desperate Hours for Paramount. As a swan song it is lacking. Had it come a few years earlier it would probably be looked on with more favor but where it lands in Bogart’s oeuvre makes it feel like a lesser film than it really deserves. Still, it had potential. It just couldn’t quite make it happen.

The Caine Mutiny (1954] ***1/2

Release Date: June 24, 1954

Running Time: 125 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis

Directed By: Edward Dmytryk

From the first moments it is obvious that some compromises were made to the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Herman Wouk the get it in theaters. It was a necessary compromise however as a film of this scope could not have possibly been made back in 1954 without the assistance of the US Navy and the Navy had many issues with the novel. Part of the appeasement made to get that assistance was a prominent disclaimer that opens the film declaring that there has never been a mutiny on board a US Naval ship. There was some softening of Commander Queen, too, to make him more sympathetic and a victim of battle fatigue rather than an outright madman. Purists of the novel and subsequent stage play might take offense at these changes but they actually make the film more powerful than it otherwise would have been. It certainly gave Humphrey Bogart something more substantial to latch onto.

Ensign Willy Keith, newly commissioned, is assigned to the USS Caine under the command of William De Vriess (Tom Tully). Executive officer Maryk (Van Johnson) and communications officer Keefer (Fred MacMurry) are also aboard. De Vriess is popular with his crew but his laid back command style bothers Keith, causing friction between the two men. Not too long after reporting for duty, Keith is pleased with the news that De Vriess is being relieved by veteran commander Phillip Queeg, a no-nonsense leader intent on whipping the men into better shape via strict discipline.

Problems begin to form though as Queeg seemingly focuses too much on minor details leading to various mishaps such as when he is too intent on dressing down an enlisted man for an untucked shirt and fails to heed the warnings his helmsman is giving him that they are about to cut across their own towing line, severing a tether between the Caine and its target. Queeg insists the incident never happened and the tow line was simply faulty and broke on its own accord. Later, on an escort mission during an invasion, Queeg orders a yellow die marker dropped into the water and abandons the mission and the ships he was escorting before reaching the designation point, leaving them to fend for themselves. His officers refuse to support the decision and he is nicknamed “Old Yellowstain” as a symbol of cowardice. 

Keefer, believing Queeg to be paranoid and unstable, attempts to convince Maryk to relieve Queeg of his command under article 184 of the Navy Regulations but Maryk is reluctant to take that action as it could lead to his court martial should it prove to be the wrong choice. His mind is changed however when Queeg goes on a rampage, turning the whole ship upside down in search for an unauthorized spare key to the food cabinets when a small amount of strawberries turns up missing. Maryk is determined to speak to the admiral about his beliefs only to suddenly lose the support of Keefer, the man who was trying to convince him to do it in the first place. Keefer now fears having his own name involved in this and won’t support the action. Eventually Maryk will have to step in when Queeg’s actions jeopardize the life of the crew which leads to a court-martial where Maryk will have to defend his actions, even as Keefer shows his true colors and refuses to support Maryk’s decision.

The Naval scenes are simply stunning. I reiterate from before that there is no way this film could have been realistically made without the assistance of the US Navy. There are many scenes that would have lost their realism had this film been made entirely on sound stages using miniatures in a water tank. Director Edward Dmytryk took full advantage of having access to these Naval ships to film some truly stunning scenes. It is this level of realism that helps smooth over some obvious miniature work later in the film during scenes of rough weather. 

The central drama that drives the story is well written and performed here. Humphrey Bogart shows just how good of an actor here as he plays things subtly in his early scenes, hiding his paranoia and fear until the right moment for maximum effect. When he is dressing down the crewman for his untucked shirt, it is definitely overboard, yet we can still see his point of view to a degree. This ramps up slowly until we begin to see just how far gone Queeg really is. The first time he juggles a pair of metal ball bearings in his hand, using them like a modern day fidget spinner, we don’t fully understand it. When he does the same thing in his final scene at the court martial, just the sound of them alone is enough to drive home his condition. Like Pavlov’s dogs, that sound elicits a response in us because we have been effectively conditioned to know what to expect when we hear them.

Equally impressive is Van Johnson as Maryk. He is a man who knows his place in the military and is reluctant to step outside that chain of command, yet understands the safety of the crew and the mission trump that of the chain of command. He is reluctant to take that step and relieve Queeg of his command, yet when that decision is finally forced on him he does it, knowing he could be hanged for it. 

Keefer is another story altogether. Fred MacMurray is primarily known as a father figure, a typecast he got from his many films made at Disney as well as his role on My Three Sons. He always seemed to be playing good natured guys and stand up men in his films. Yet he was a slime ball in The Apartment, a film many credit as being against type for him. He is neither a leader or father figure here, nor is he a slime ball. He is, however, a cowardly manipulator who backs off when it’s his neck on the line. He’s all for reporting on Queeg until he actually has to do anything then he suddenly thinks it’s not the right thing to do. When called to testify on the mutiny he makes it clear that he feels Maryk was not justified even though it was he that was pushing for it all along. When he is eventually called out for his cowardice he doesn’t even have the courage to stand up for himself but just stand there looking ashamed and pathetic.

If there is any weak element to this film it is the character of Willy Keith. Effort was made to round out his character by introducing a love interest and a conflict with his overbearing mother. All this accomplishes is becoming a distraction to the main story and slowing down what is otherwise a good solid pace. The scenes are unnecessary and just serve to make the film longer. Actor Robert Francis is fine here although he was not great. He had a short career in just four films, all military roles, before his life was cut short just one year after this film. His character is too stiff and we never really care for him and his personal issues the way we do about Maryk and Queeg. The novel focused more on Keith but the film wisely shifted focus to the more interesting characters.

This is a film with few flaws. Keith is the biggest with his uninspiring home life and battles to get his girl to accept his proposals. Everything else is firing on all thrusters presenting “truths [that] lie not in its incidents, but in the way a few men meet the crisis of their lives.” That statement at the beginning of the film tells you all that this film will be about while at the same time letting you know it will not take too harsh of a shot at military leadership. It could have been a heavy blow against the effectiveness of the film but it is handled so well that we almost forget we read it right at the beginning of the movie. It is well acted and well dramatized and deserves all the recognition it got then and the reputation is survives on now.

High Sierra (1941) ***

Release Date: January 21, 1941

Running Time: 100 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy

Directed By: Raoul Walsh

Humphrey Bogart was primarily known in his early career for playing gangsters and other various lowlifes. These early pictures he would play gangster #3, then gangster #2 before finally settling in as lead gangster, head of a group of nefarious baddies destined to go down in a blaze of glory in the final reel. 1941 marks the end of an era for Bogart. It wouldn’t be the final performance in this type of a role but it would be the beginning of the era when he would stop being known as just another gangster actor and would branch out heavily into other roles such as The Maltese Falcon, several war pictures (All Through the Night, Across the Pacific), and of course Casablanca. He had one gangster film for Warner Brothers left in him, The Big Shot, but that plays more like an afterthought than an epithet. It seems fitting that this transition would be marked with the film High Sierra, a film that, when summed up could appear like just another B-movie crime film but is actually so much more.

Bogart stars as Roy Earle, a bank robber for hire who is suddenly and unexpectedly paroled from prison. His benefactor is Big Mac (Donald MacBride), an aged gangster with serious health problems. Mac wants Earle to do one final job for him, robbing a California Resort Hotel with the assistance of a couple of hired guns and an inside man, Mendoza (Cornel Wilde), the desk clerk who is tasked with alerting the men when the time is right for the robbery. Roy doesn’t much care for Mendoza as he sizes the man up as a coward and a reminder of when he put his trust in a similar person causing the whole order to go south.

Along for the ride is Marie (Ida Lupino), a dance hall girl who came with one of the hired guns. Roy wants her gone immediately but she pleads her case and he relents, allowing her to stay. As a sort of mascot for the group, A dog named Pard soon takes a liking to Roy but Roy is warned that the dog brings bad luck having been cared for by two previous owners who subsequently died. Roy doesn’t believe in such superstition and takes in the dog. It is a decision he will come to regret.

Roy is not written as the typical cold hearted criminal. It is true that he is a killer and he demonstrates that when the situation demands it of him by not hesitating to pull the trigger on someone. But before we are ever shown the harder side of his character we see a different side, one that the police would hardly scribe to the man. Early in the film, while traveling from prison to the hideout in Nevada, Roy has a near collision on the road with the family of Velma, a young woman with a club foot whose traveling to California. The surgery needed to correct the defect is too expensive for the family but Roy is smitten with Velma and arranges for the surgery to be paid for out of his own money. He falls for the woman and is devastated that, while very grateful to him, she doesn’t love him back. Marie, in turn, has fallen for Roy after things turn sour between her and the man she came to Nevada with in the first place.

The actual heist that all of this is leading up to really isn’t much of the story at all. Predictably things don’t go off without a hitch leaving the police on the lookout for Roy. Even though Roy goes on the run with Marie and Pard, it’s fate that leads to Roy facing off with the pursuing law officers alone, just as he began the film, on the steep rocks of the Sierra Nevada mountainside. Like most of the men Bogart has portrayed up to this point, he is a loner, destined to go out that way.

What really elevates this film above the many MANY other gangster films of the day is just how well developed Roy is as a character. This is no generic gangster that populated such films as Brother Orchid, Angels With Dirty Faces or The Petrified Forest. In those films Bogart was menacing but one-dimensional. Here, almost from the first scene, we see Roy Earle as more than just a criminal. He has principles and a low tolerance for abuse to women. When Red, one of his hired gang, abuses Marie, Roy steps in and puts Red in his place, stopping short of killing the man. Later, when spurned by Velma who is holding out for her man out east, Roy doesn’t take repayment for the expensive surgery he paid for. Instead, he leaves the family behind and seeks solace with Marie, the two becoming lovers.

Bogart is in fine form here in the lead. Something as simple as a short haircut went a long way toward selling him as older than he really was. He was just over forty when filming this movie but looks at least a decade older. But it’s not just the look that sells this character. Bogart carries himself differently here than he would playing a younger man. Just in the way he walks, the looks on his face when he’s sizing up those around him, conveys his world weariness. This is a stellar performance from an actor many people dismissed as having little range. 

There is plenty of action in this film but that is not what this film is all about. Boiled down it is a tragic character study about a man who has chosen to be a criminal but has a real soft spot in his heart. He is capable of great kindness but the circumstances he has put himself in have permanently locked that part of a normal life away from him. It magnifies the tragedy when we see him truly happy in the presence of Velma, hopeful she will love him even after hearing her heart belongs to someone else. He doesn’t truly fall back into bitterness until after even he cannot ignore that it will never happen between them. The light leaves his eyes and we know from that point onward what the final trajectory of his story will be. But knowing that doesn’t make the journey any less exciting or fulfilling. 

Big City Blues (1932) **1/2

Release Date: September 10, 1932

Running Time: 63 minutes

Starring: Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Walter Catlett

Directed By: Mervyn LeRoy

Big City Blues is a prime example of a film that doesn’t have much of a point beyond just being there to provide an hour of entertainment. There are no real messages behind the proceedings nor is there an agenda to get across. It exists as a farce, a broadly painted portrait of big city corruptibility and the naive nature of country folk getting swallowed up by the temptations and excitement of the city.

Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) has just inherited $1,100 from his aunt. Having lived his whole life in rural Indiana he decides to use that money to move to New York City where life is more exciting than what he is accustomed to. The railman selling him his ticket to the big apple has some experience with New York and imparts some words of warning that fall on deaf ears. He sells Bud the ticket but places a bet on the side with one of his friends that Bud will be back in less than a month with his fill of the city. 

Bud arrives in New York and checks into a plush hotel where he is later greeted by his street smart cousin Gibby (Walter Catlett) who immediately starts fleecing the naive young man out of his inheritance. Gibby introduces him to the city life including two chorus girls, Vida Fleet (Joan Blondell) and Faun (Inez Courtney). The group throw a party in Bud’s hotel room along with several other acquaintances of Gibby’s and at some point a fight breaks out between two of the men. The lights go out and when they come back up, one of the female guests, Jackie (Josephine Dunn) is laying on the floor dead. Everyone from the party flees including Bud and Vida, whom Bud has fallen in love with. Naturally, the police are now looking for Bud as the prime suspect since it was his room Jackie was killed in.

 Director Mervyn LeRoy paints this picture with extremely broad brush strokes. Every scene, every character is so broadly drawn that it is difficult to take any of it seriously. This wouldn’t be a problem if the film was successfully attempting to be a screwball comedy but it isn’t doing that. It’s a farce, for sure, but one that takes itself too serious at times to make for a successful one. 

Of the main cast Joan Blondell comes out the best. She has next to no character to work with but manages to make what she does have sympathetic and even charming. It is no wonder Bud falls for her so easily. Joan had to have known how shallow this character was when she read the script and she proved why she was such a star with how she handled it. When she’s saying her goodbyes to Bud in the final act we see the pain in her eyes and believe it is hurting her, even though she barely has had time to get to know Bud. In contrast, we get none of that from Eric Linden who seems to have learned nothing from the events of his time in the city. The only interesting turn we get from his character is that, even though he predictably ends up back on the train to Indiana in the end, he is still intent on returning to the city to make another go at it. 

Walter Catlett is an absolute delight chewing the scenery as the greasy weasel cousin Gibby. He, like nearly everything else here, is playing things very broadly. But it is such a delight watching him fast talk his way into Bud’s money and, while we dislike him for being so shady, we still like it more when he is on screen. He seemingly knows everyone in town and has a con for every situation. 

Rounding out the cast are several uncredited performances by soon to be stars Humphrey Bogart, Lyle Talbot, Evelyn Knapp, and several others. They are peppered in, mainly at the apartment party. Of these, Bogart makes the biggest impression as Shep, a friend of Gibby who is there to enjoy the booze and the women.

The story is predictable for the most part with the possible exception of Bud’s determination to return to New York. Even the railway clerk is puzzled by this decision and nothing in the film, besides Vida perhaps, explains why Bud feels this way. It’s an odd note to send the film off with but at least it was unexpected.