MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: HIDE-OUT (1934)

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Friday, June 28, 2019

HIDE-OUT (1934)

Robert Montgomery is just fantastic (smooth, funny, debonair, dangerous) in this smart little romance about a four-gal-a-night B’way Playboy who fronts for a protection racket, but needs to make himself scarce when cops start putting on the heat. Racing out of town, he crashes into a sweet little farming family and ‘gets religion,’ so to speak, when a week’s recovery opens his eyes to a different sort of life and the lovely farmer’s daughter (school teacher Maureen O’Hara). Everybody involved gets the tone just right: the creatives (Producer/Director/Married Writers Hunt Stromberg/W.S. Van Dyke/Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett fresh off THE THIN MAN/’34) and none of the cast slumming. The First Act is particularly fine, a dazzling pass thru NYC Nightclub life, with hot shows always going on behind the main players (and with a fresh pair of Nacio Brown/Arthur Freed tunes) as Montgomery makes the nightly rounds: cajoling or threatening slow paying owners while working the babes. Fast and believable, the vibe is pure Damon Runyon. Once in the country, the gambit turns to fish-out-of-water gags, but with situations avoiding easy slapstick and a note of truth in the farce. (Even a young Mickey Rooney stays in bounds as the kid brother.) A groundswell of gentle humor and unexpectedly touching romance in this package, with lenser Ray June going glam as needed. A real find.

DOUBLE-BILL: Released about the same time, HE WAS HER MAN/’34 sends James Cagney’s mob man countryside for a more sobersided life changing experience with Joan Blondell. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/11/he-was-her-man-1934.html

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Friday, June 28, 2019

HIDE-OUT (1934)

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