Cut-rate version of the old Good Brother/Bad Brother story, with a twist since the prologue shows how one of the boys was adopted by Mama Marjorie Rambeau (the 'Ravioli Queen') to keep both kids out of Juvie Jail. Nothing wrong there, it’s everything else that goes kablooey, starting with Rambeau’s laughably bad Italian accent, in this lame Warners meller. Quick cut and the bad brother’s become John Garfield; the adopted one straight, tall & true William Lundigan; and Brenda Marshall tagging along as Garfield’s moll before switching sides. Dramatic hash thru & thru, leftovers reheated for an extra meal. And it might have worked, if only Alfred E. Green put some moxie in his megging. And while it looks like they’ve wasted a clever little ending, fret not, somebody at the studio probably used it again.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Not sure what Manhattan nab they’re going for here. Not the sort of detail director Green bothered with. The studio sets are backlot Warners Manhattan, the presumption is Little Italy, but the title suggests Hell’s Kitchen, no? (EAST of the Hudson River.) Wherever we are, our Belgian poster is closer to the mark in Flemish as MOTHERLOVE or in French as HOT HEAD.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Warners had just made the big boys’ version of this one in Raoul Walsh’s THE ROARING TWENTIES/’39 with James Cagney, Jeffrey Lynn, Priscilla Lane in the Garfield, Lundigan, Marshall spots.
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