Edward G. Robinson caught a break from the ethnic heavies he’d been playing at Warners in this modest charmer. He’s still a mug who strong-armed his way to riches pushing illegal booze, but now lightens his Post-Prohibition image as a reformed mug. Closing up shop in Chicago, he takes his chances (and his fortune), along with henchman Russell Hopton, to try the high life in California. Playing the society game, falling for Helen Vinson’s society dame, and unaware he’s being set up for a fleecing till Mary Astor, the social secretary he hired after renting the family manse her late father lost, wises him up to the corrupt ways of counterfeit society. No real surprises here, but no pressing for comic effect either. With gags & characterizations relatively gentle, rising naturally from the situations; quite unlike Warners’ usual comic overselling. Best guess gives co-scripter Wilson Mizner credit for holding to tone*, along with the unexpected chemistry between Robinson & Mary Astor who shows particularly lovely form.
DOUBLE-BILL: Robinson would milk this defanged gangster routine in three broader, but still enjoyable Warners pics (A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER//’38; BROTHER ORCHID/’40; LARCENY, INC./’42), but got the most out of the switch by splitting it in two for John Ford’s THE WHOLE TOWN’S TALKING/’35 with Jean Arthur over at Columbia.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Mizner died a month before this came out (only 56) taking his light touch with him?
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