Two Against The World (1936) **1/2

Release Date: July 11, 1936

Running Time: 64 minutes

Starring: Helen MacKellar, Henry O’Neill, Humphrey Bogart

Directed by: William C. McGann

Sherry Scott (Humphrey Bogart) is a no nonsense manager of a radio station that has been struggling to get listeners as of late. His boss Reynolds (Robert Middlemass) has an idea he feels will bring in audiences en mass, broadcast a true crime story serialized based on a murder that happened years ago where a woman killed her husband but was found justified in the crime. The idea seems innocent enough at first but, unfortunately, the woman in the story, Gloria Pembrook, is still around under a new name, Martha Carstairs (Helen MacKellar). With the story being dredged up on air, Martha is shaken and upset. She has a grown daughter named Edith (Beverly Roberts) with her second husband who is engaged to be married and knows nothing about her mother’s past. Finding out would devastate her and could also possibly endanger the engagement.

Complicating things, a man Martha and her husband, Jim (Henry O’Neill), assumes is a clergyman turns out to be a reporter. When they confide the truth of Martha’s past to him he sells the story to the radio station where it goes out on the air. The parents of Edith’s fiancée want to resolve the engagement. Martha pleads with Reynolds at the radio station to cease broadcasting the story, not for her sake but for Edith’s but the story is bringing in too much revenue for him to even consider it.  Sherry Scott on the other hand is getting disillusioned with the coldness of the response but, at first refuses to act, not wanting to jeopardize his retirement. Jim loses his job when his work chooses to avoid controversy. All of this begins to push Martha to the breaking point.

The concept of this story is intriguing but it bogs down in an overwhelming sense of mean spiritedness that is never overcome. The film is titled Two Against The World and it is an apt title. While it isn’t quite just two, after all we have Edith and her supportive fiancée in the fray, it does feel like everyone else in the film is cynical and cold hearted, putting the almighty dollar over all else at the expense of their humanity. This is softened a little by the increasingly jaded Sherry Scott but even he is cold to the Carstair’s situation until late in the game. Reynolds is rattled when he sees what his actions are causing, yet he remains determined to press forward anyway. 

What all these events lead up to is some of the most harrowing scenes of despair ever committed to cinema. It is meant to anger and it succeeds there. But it rarely tempers the despair with any light. This leaves the film feeling unbalanced and lacking any real fun in the viewing. This does succeed in putting us in the head of Martha. Is is a deeply unpleasant experience that may turn audiences off to the whole film. 

This is not a film made for its entertainment value. It is meant to be thought provoking and to stir up strong emotions. It succeeds on both counts. It is deeply unpleasant and doesn’t pull any punches. It also doesn’t play out the way a traditional film would. It was based on a play from 1930 that in turn was made into a film the following year starring Edward G. Robinson. This film is much shorter than the former film but manages to avoid feeling rushed. At less than an hour in length it is just long enough to tell the story without keeping us depressed for longer than it needs to.