Remembered as Warner’s B-Unit production Head in the ‘30s & ‘40s, Bryan Foy (‘Keeper of the B’s’) had earlier directed scores of silent & early sound shorts before expanding this little ‘Two Reeler’ from a Two to a Six reel mob story, backing into the First All-Talking Feature-Length film six months after the song-studded, but largely silent JAZZ SINGER in ’27. (And pissing off his superiors till they saw their 20 thou investment earn over a million.) Derided as an artistic embarrassment ever since, it’s really not so bad; a curious antique about a pair of rubes who buy an NYC barbershop not knowing it’s really a front for a bootleg booze warehouse. Stiffly paced and too reliant on master shots (a rare close-up is wasted on the oscillating clanger of a telephone bell, a silent film convention made instantly obsolete by synch-sound), it’s fun to see which actors naturally ‘get’ Talkie acting technique (Eugene Pallette, already on form) and which over-articulate in a stagy manner (main heavy Wheeler Oakman). Here and there, a few lines (or awkward line readings) can still cause a panic (there’s a lulu on how much the State will save by avoiding an electrocution), but there’s more fun noting just how much is already in place awaiting cinematic chrysalis. Easy to see why everybody wanted to see it; easy to see why film lovers were horrified.
DOUBLE-BILL: Alas, Foy’s follow-up and only other feature as director, THE HOME TOWNERS/’28, is lost.
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