Typical bare-budget fare from the Williams, Pine & Thomas (known collectively as the Dollar Bills), this bargain-basement blockbuster pits old rivals at work & romance in competition. One a naturally talented fuckup/braggart; the other more worker bee/butter-and-egg man. Made at M-G-M with 10X the budget, the guys would be Clark Gable & Spencer Tracy; at 20th/Fox Tyrone Power & Don Ameche; Warners with Cagney & Pat O’Brien. For the Dollar Bills? You get Chester Morris (late of M-G-M) & Richard Arlen (late of Paramount).* Credit the Bills with finding a good target for the action (a motley wrecking crew who specialize in tearing down dangerously dilapidated skyscrapers), and in finding the unknown Alex Widlicska, in his sole film credit, to work up special-effects that help director Frank McDonald give those cracking facades a reasonable sense of weight and volume. Even real suspense in some simply accomplished trick shots. (They’d look even better if a decent print could be found.) Jean Parker no more than efficient as the girl with a past who must choose between the men, but kudos to someone for casting middle-aged character actress Esther Dale as ‘Mike,’ a senior woman in a man’s job (she inherited the biz from her husband) who’s both sentimental (the reckless Morris gets break after break because he reminds her of her husband) as well as tough. And check out how they set up the corny sacrifice at the end. Play ball!
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK: *Arlen always looked a bit glum at having fallen off the A-list, whereas Morris’s joie de vivre at just being an actor could come across as prime ham. Arlen probably at his best in late silents like BEGGARS OF LIFE/’28. For Morris, it’s his early M-G-M Talkies, see THE BIG HOUSE/’30. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/01/beggars-of-life-1928.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-big-house-1930.html
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