You won't be disappointed!

Absolutely brilliant

A Disappointing Continuation

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Dire. When the first scene of the movie is a tracking shot to a line of chorus girls and eventually focuses on the most inept dancer you have ever seen, you know it's downhill from here. This talentless, ham-fisted, frumpy cow actually has a supporting role, which sets the bar very low for everyone else. However, they still manage to demolish any semblance of good acting. Chester Morris, who plays the gangster, is horrendous. As cardboard as the stage sets, he alternates between smugness and a perpetual scowl for most of the movie. At the end when his alibi is disproven, his personality completely changes unbelievably and he turns into a whimpering sap. The scene where he thinks he has been shot by the police and collapses on the floor is hysterical, as well as his actual death scene. On the topic of death scenes, a shout out has to go to Regis Toomey. Irritating throughout, his death scene has to be the longest ever put to film that I ended up shouting, "just die, already!" at him.The story itself may have been interesting for an easily-entertained 1929 audience, but with so many coincidences and implausible moments, as well as being boring, clichéd and dull, I was wishing this 91 minute masterpiece of crap was only 91 seconds long. This was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor for Chester Morris. I despair.

The story here is interesting enough and on its own ensures that no one will feel disappointed at having watched this. Chick Weaver is a gangster just released from prison who hooks up with a "copper's daughter." Unfortunately, he can't go straight and gets involved with a warehouse robbery during which he kills a cop. The rest of the movie essentially deals with his attempts to frame an alibi for himself and with the efforts of the police to find the cop-killer. There are a few points at which the story gets a bit confusing, but it holds your interest well enough as you follow the various characters. What's really most interesting about this, though, is its status as a very early "talkie."In that sense, I almost saw this serving as a proverbial "missing link" between the silent era and the sound era. There are parts of this movie which are very much like a silent movie - with no dialogue or sound effects other than a musical background. And yet, most of the movie has dialogue, although strangely the accompanying sound effects (ie, the sound of doors slamming, etc.) often seem to be missing. At times, this movie even has, in both sound and picture quality, a very later (say 1950's) feel to it. This diversity of "style" (for lack of a better word) would seem to me to be an example of director Roland West experimenting with this new way of movie-making. The weirdest aspect of this would probably be an extended scene right at the beginning of the movie, where police officers do nothing but bang their billy clubs against a wall for no apparent purpose - except, perhaps, to demonstrate to the audience that this has sound?This is an enjoyable enough movie, and an interesting look at this transitional era of movie-making. 7/10

Hitchcock's "Blackmail" and Lubitsch's "The Love Parade", are probably the very best of the early sound films made in 1929, but this one is close behind. I'm rating this film 9/10 when ranked with other early sound entries from 1929 -1934. Although the dialogue still has some of that halting quality that is common in early talkies, it doesn't cause the film to plod along. Instead, it moves along at a good pace and keeps you engaged. The actors have a pretty natural quality in their performance, Chester Morris in particular. He's the one actor you're likely to recognize, since he had a pretty good career in the 30's and 40's playing romantic leads first and then in a crime drama series later on.The film starts out with Chick Williams (Chester Morris) being released from prison, supposedly after being framed by the police. He's dating the daughter of a hard-boiled detective, and from the way the detective and his subordinates handle things - not to mention his rough treatment of his daughter - at first you might believe Chick is a wronged guy. Shortly after Chick's release there is a robbery that goes bad in which a police officer is killed. Chick is suspect number one, except he has an alibi - the hard-boiled detective's daughter, and roughly a hundred other people who saw him at the theatre at the time of the robbery.There are lots of little interesting tricks and turns in this movie, not to mention the interesting use of sound and the mounting of the camera on the front of the car so that as the police and the criminals speed around in the dark, you see what they see. Look at any other typically claustrophobic 1929 film, and you'll appreciate this even more. I also enjoyed how this film used musical numbers - not to intrude on the plot in a silly way as so many 1929 films did - but to add to the atmosphere of the club that Chick and his gang hang out at.Finally there is Chester Morris' acting. He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his performance, and he certainly deserved it. He transitioned from playing the smooth and possibly wronged man, to vicious criminal, to trembling coward quite believably. Not for another two years, when Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney came along, do we get quite such a powerful performance from an actor playing a gangster.The one bad thing I'll say about the Kino DVD is that the sound has quite a bit of static in it. It's not terrible, but there are times when you need to really turn up the volume to understand what's being said.

1929 was a beginning for talking picture entertainment. A few of the motion pictures made in 1929 were really good, i.e., The Broadway Melody (1929). This one, even though it has a couple of good moments, is terrible and nearly unwatchable. The reason for this is the direction and the limitless periods of silly time between lines and scenes. You find yourself talking to the characters and asking, well, OK, what?, as they stare at each other waiting to deliver the next line. Chester Morris, Eleanor Griffith, and Mae Busch of Laurel and Hardy fame are fine in their own right. The 1929 music is just fine too. But, I couldn't finish watching the film because of Roland West's absolutely silly direction and lack of skill in the medium. This one is a loser. So was Roland West.