With George Raft & William Holden (fresh off his GOLDEN BOY debut) listed above-the-title, and Humphrey Bogart just below, you expect more than a routine B+ time waster, especially from Warner Brothers. No such luck. Raft & prison pal Bogart, released from Sing-Sing on the same day, are on different tracks: Raft toeing the line as a ‘good’ parolee; Bogart going straight back to the mob. And it sure looks like crime pays as Bogie & gang haul in the dough while Raft, keeping his nose clean, loses job afer job when his past comes up. Briefly, the film tries a fresh angle with a stab at a kid’s job: Raft as stockboy, but this also ostracizes him until he wins over his young co-workers . . . when his past comes up! Neat idea, too bad it's dropped in favor of Raft heading back to his bad old ways when kid-brother Holden’s chip-on-the-shoulder attitude threatens to ruin his chance at a future and with boring wife, second-billed Jane Bryan. Lloyd Bacon megs as if he’s carrying a brick in his pants; and hardly a fresh idea in here. Even Holden, fine between Barbara Stanwyck & Adolphe Menjou in GOLDEN BOY, barely treads water. The main reason to stick around is Bogart, especially after he’s shot, acting circles around his co-stars . . . even in these circumstances. (Holden would catch up, Raft never did.)
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Raft’s short stint at Warners began earlier this year in what turned out to be his best for the studio, co-starred with James Cagney in EACH DAWN I DIE.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: 'In’ joke as Bogart & girlfriend leave a movie theater showing YOU CANT GET AWAY WITH MURDER/’39, a real Warners programmer with a top-billed Humphrey Bogart.
No comments:
Post a Comment