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Up The River (1930)

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John Ford

Up the River (1930) is a pre-Code comedy film about escaped convicts, directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart in their feature film debuts. The movie was remade by 20th Century-Fox in 1938, also entitled Up the River, with Preston Foster and Tony Martin respectively in the Tracy and Bogart roles.

Plot

Two convicts, St. Louis (Spencer Tracy) and Dannemora Dan (Warren Hymer) befriend another convict named Steve (Humphrey Bogart), who is in love with woman’s-prison inmate Judy (Claire Luce). Steve is paroled, promising Judy that he will wait for her release five months later. He returns to his hometown in New England and his mother’s home.

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However, he is followed there by Judy’s former “employer”, the scam artist Frosby (Gaylord Pendleton). Frosby threatens to expose Steve’s prison record if the latter refuses to go along with a scheme to defraud his neighbors. Steve goes along with it until Frosby defrauds his mother.

Fortunately, at this moment St. Louis and Dannemora Dan have broken out of prison and come to Steve’s aid, taking away a gun he planned to use on the fraudster, instead stealing back bonds stolen by Frosby. They return to prison in time for its annual baseball game against a rival penitentiary. The film closes with St. Louis on the pitcher’s mound with his catcher, Dannemora Dan, presumably ready to lead their team to victory.[1][2]

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Cast

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Casting

Tracy had starred in three shorts earlier the same year and Bogart had been an unbilled extra in a silent movie a decade before, as well as starring in two short films in the past two years, but this is the first credited feature film for both actors.

This was the only feature film that Tracy and Bogart ever made together. They tried to make The Desperate Hours in 1955, but neither would consent to second billing, so the role intended for Tracy went to Fredric March instead. It was the only film Bogart made with director John Ford, and Tracy wouldn’t work with Ford again until The Last Hurrah (1958).

Claire Luce (1903–1989) made very few films, but was on Broadway in many plays from 1923–1952. She should not be confused with author/playwright/political activist Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987).

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References

  1. Jump up^ Up the River at TCM Movie Database
  2. Jump up^ Hall, Mordaunt. “Movies: About Up the River”. The New York Times. Retrieved May 27, 2010.

Bibliography

  • New England Vintage Film Society, Inc. (2008). Spencer Tracy: The Pre-Code Legacy of a Hollywood Legend. Newton, MA: New England Vintage Film Society. ISBN 978-1-4363-4138-7.

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Hole In The Wall, The (1929)

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Hole In The Wall, The (1929)

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The Hole in the Wall is a 1929 mystery drama film directed by Robert Florey, and starring Claudette Colbert and Edward G. Robinson. This film marks the first appearance of Edward G. Robinson as a gangster.

Cast

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Plot

Jean Oliver falls in love with a wealthy young man, and his mother, Mrs. Ramsey, sees to it that she is sent to prison on a trumped-up charge. Time passes. Jean is released from stir and throws in with a band of phony spiritualists, donning the robes of Madame Mystera, a crook recently killed in an accident on the elevated.

Jean quickly proposes that her new companions in crime kidnap the granddaughter of Mrs. Ramsey and hold the child for ransom. The child is taken, but the police arrest the gang. The Fox, crafty leader of the spiritualists, is the only one who knows the whereabouts of the missing child, however, and he trades this information for immunity and a statement from Mrs. Ramsey that Jean had not in fact committed the crime for which she was sent to jail. Jean is freed and reunited with Gordon Grant, her childhood sweetheart, a reporter who has accompanied the police in the raid on the gang.

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Framed (1930)

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Framed (1930)

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Director: George Archainbaud

Cast: Evelyn Brent, Regis Toomey, Ralf Harolde, William Holden, Maurice Black, Robert Emmet O’Connor, Eddie Kane

65 min

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Framed is an 1930 American pre-Code crime action film, directed by George Archainbaud, based on a screenplay by Paul Schofield and Wallace Smith. It starred Evelyn Brent, William Holden (no relation to the Oscar-winning actor, William Holden), Regis Toomey and Ralf Harolde.

Plot summary

When Rose Manning’s father is killed during a robbery by Inspector McArthur, Manning vows to avenge his death. Five years elapse, and Rose is now the owner of a nightclub, and her liquor supplier, the bootlegger Chuck Gaines is interested in her. Still plotting her revenge, she meets Jimmy McArthur, who she does not realize is the son of the inspector. Spurning Gaines’ advances, Rose becomes romantically involved with Jimmy. Her motivations waver as her emotional attachment to the young McArthur grows, until her relationship takes precedence over her revenge.

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Chuck, jealous of the growing relationship between Rose and Jimmy, plots with his cohort, Bing Murdock, to murder both the inspector and his son. Uncovering the plan, Rose is attempting to warn Jimmy, when his father raids her club. In the ensuing chaos, Jimmy kills Gaines in order to protect Rose, after Gaines attacked her in a fit of jealous rage. When the inspector finally realizes that what Rose and Jimmy have is real affection for one another, he removes any objections over their relationship.

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Cast

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References

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b c “Framed: Detail View”. American Film Institute. Retrieved June 7, 2014.

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World Gone Mad, The (1933)

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The World Gone Mad AKA The Public Be Hanged (1933)

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Director: Christy Cabanne

Cast: Pat O’Brien, Evelyn Brent, Neil Hamilton, Mary Brian, Louis Calhern, J Carrol Naish, Buster Phelps, Richard Tucker, Edward Van Sloan

80 min

The World Gone Mad (also released as The Public Be Hanged) is a 1933 American Pre-Code crime film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Pat O’Brien, Evelyn Brent and Neil Hamilton.[1] It was made on a low-budget by the independent Majestic Pictures, a Poverty Row forerunner of Republic Pictures.[2]

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Plot

When a district attorney who has been investigating a utility company’s directors for fraud is suddenly killed, his wisecracking newspaperman friend (Pat O’Brien) gets curious. He and the upstanding new district attorney (Neil Hamilton) separately pursue the case. Cultivated but sinister businessmen, a shady nightclub owner specializing in “import and export”, several beautiful young women always seen in evening gowns, a “Latin lover” type who reads Casanova and an abundance of suave men in evening dress provide eye-candy for the duration.

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Cast

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References

  1. Jump up^ “The World Gone Mad”. NY Times. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  2. Jump up^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:..The World Gone Mad

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X Marks The Spot (1931)

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X Marks The Spot (1931)

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Director: Erle C Kenton

Cast: Lew Cody, Sally Blane, Wallace Ford, Mary Nolan, Fred Kohler, Charles Middleton, Virginial Lee Corbin, Joyce Coad, Richard Tucker, Hank Mann, Helen Parrish

72 minutes

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X Marks the Spot is a 1931 American pre-Code crime drama film, directed by Erle C. Kenton and released by Tiffany Pictures, which operated from 1921 to 1932.

The story concerns a newspaper reporter indebted to a gangster for raising the money to save his little girl’s life. The source material was remade into a 1942 film of the same name. Helen Parrish appeared in both versions.

Plot

Ted Lloyd, a reporter for a small-town newspaper, follows an ambulance to the scene of an accident where he discovers that his young sister Gloria is the victim. Gloria’s doctor tells Ted that if she is ever to walk again, Ted must find the money to send her to Germany for an operation.

Ted asks all his friends, including his editor George Howard, for help, but although they are sympathetic, none has the necessary money. Desperately, Ted approaches Riggs, a local gangster. At first, Riggs flatly refuses to make the loan. Ted then offers to exchange secret information about the District Attorney for the money. Riggs angrily denounces Ted as an informer, then unexpectedly decides to give him the money for the operation. Ted promises never to forget Riggs’ kindness.

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Eight years later, George has become the editor of the New York Gazette and Ted works as the Broadway gossip columnist. When Ted writes an item about showgirl Vivyan Parker, implying that she is being kept by a wealthy man, she sues the paper for libel. Eager to avoid the suit, George sends Ted to Vivyan’s apartment to obtain a release. Ted sneaks into her apartment with the help of the doorman, but Vivyan refuses to sign the release and orders him out of her apartment. When she is later found murdered, Ted is the primary suspect.

In order to clear his name, Ted, who believes that robbery was the motive for Vivyan’s murder, obtains a list of her jewelry from her lover, E. T. Barnes. He contacts several fences and, with the help of one of them, discovers that the murderer is Riggs. Remembering that Riggs once did him a favor, Ted does not reveal his name, but George, suspecting that Ted knows who committed the murder, follows him to his meeting with Riggs and Riggs is arrested.

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Believing that Ted betrayed him, Riggs swears vengeance. During the trial, one of Riggs’ cronies tapes a gun beneath the table where Riggs waits for sentencing. When a guilty verdict is returned, Riggs uses the gun to shoot a guard and abduct one of the jurors. Riggs holds the man hostage, insisting that he will release him in exchange for Ted. Ted agrees, entering the room where Riggs waits at the same time the police release a smoke bomb. In the following gun battle, Riggs is killed and Ted is wounded. While Ted is in the hospital, George takes over his column. His final effort announces Ted’s engagement to his secretary, Sue.

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Cast

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Racketeer, The (1929)

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Racketeer, The (1929)

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Director: Howard Higgin

Cast: Robert Armstrong, Carole Lombard, Roland Drew, Paul Hurst, Kit Guard, Al Hill, Hedda Hopper, John Loder, Jeanette Loff, Winter Hall, Winifred Harris, Robert Parrish

68 min

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The Racketeer is a 1929 American Pre-Code drama film. Directed by Howard Higgin, the film is also known as Love’s Conquest in the United Kingdom.

It tells the tale of some members of the criminal class in 1920s America, and in particular one man and one woman’s attempts to help him. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper appears in a minor role. The film is one of the early talkies, and as a result, dialogue is very sparse.

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Plot

New York City gangster Mahlon Keene (Robert Armstrong) melts when he meets down-on-her-luck beauty Rhoda (Carole Lombard), a society gal who’s in desperate need of dough to support herself and her boyfriend, Tony (Roland Drew), a brilliant violinist with a serious drinking problem.

Mahlon pulls some strings to help Tony get back on top; in return, Rhoda is to dump the musician and marry the mobster.

The already heated situation is further complicated when the cops decide to crack down on Mahlon.

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Cast

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Kennel Murder Case, The (1933)

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The Kennel Murder Case (1933)

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Director: Michael Curtiz

Cast: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette, Ralph Morgan, Robert McVade, Robert Barratt, Frank Conroy, Etienne Giradot, James Lee, Helen Winson, Paul Cavanagh, Jack La Rue

73 min

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The Kennel Murder Case is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring William Powell as Philo Vance, reprising the role for Warner Bros. after appearing as Vance in three films for Paramount.

Plot

Philo Vance’s dog does not make it into the final of the Long Island Kennel Club’s dog show.

Fellow competitor Archer Coe (Robert Barrat) is disappointed, having hoped to savor a victory over Vance. Coe is found dead the next morning in his bedroom, locked from the inside. District Attorney Markham (Robert McWade) and Police Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette) assume it was suicide, because he was shot through the head and was found holding a pistol.

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Vance is not convinced. He soon finds evidence that Coe was murdered. Coroner Dr. Doremus (Etienne Girardot) determines the victim died of a stab wound.

There is no shortage of suspects; Coe was very much disliked. His niece Hilda Lake (Mary Astor) resented her uncle’s tight control of her finances and jealousy of any men who showed interest in her.

Her boyfriend, Sir Thomas MacDonald (Paul Cavanagh), suspected Coe of killing his dog to ensure winning the competition. Raymond Wrede (Ralph Morgan), the dead man’s secretary, was in love with Miss Lake, but had been laughed at when he sought Coe’s support.

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Coe’s next-door neighbor and lover Doris Delafield (Helen Vinson) had been cheating on him with Eduardo Grassi (Jack La Rue). When Coe found out, he cancelled a contract to sell his collection of Chinese artworks to the Milan museum for which Grassi worked.

Liang (James Lee), the cook, had worked long, hard, and illegally to help Coe amass his collection. He warned his employer against the proposed sale and was fired as a result. Even Coe’s own brother Brisbane (Frank Conroy) despised Coe. Finally, Gamble (Arthur Hohl), the head servant, had concealed his criminal past.

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Brisbane Coe becomes Vance’s prime suspect. His alibi of taking a train at the time of the murder is disproved. When he is found dead in a closet, Vance is both puzzled and enlightened. Among Brisbane’s effects, Vance finds a book titled Unsolved Murders; a bookmarked page details a method of using string to lock a door through the keyhole without leaving a trace. Part of the mystery is solved.

Later, an attempt is made on the life of Sir Thomas using the same dagger used to kill Coe. Finally, a Doberman Pinscher belonging to Miss Delafield is found seriously injured, apparently struck with a fireside poker. From these and other clues, Vance finally solves the crime.

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It turns out that two men sought Coe’s life that night. The successful murderer struggled with Coe and stabbed him, leaving him for dead. Coe awakened soon after. Too dazed to recall the fight or notice that he was mortally wounded, he went upstairs to his bedroom and opened his window before dying.

Brisbane entered the chamber, saw his brother apparently asleep in his chair. He shot the corpse and arranged the scene to look like a suicide. Downstairs, he ran into the actual killer, who had seen that Archer Coe was still alive and came back to finish the job. In the darkness, he mistook Brisbane for Archer and killed the wrong man. Delafield’s dog then wandered in, attracted by the commotion, and attacked the murderer.

While sure of the killer’s identity, Vance has no proof. He therefore arranges for Sir Thomas and Wrede to quarrel over Hilda Lake. When Wrede instinctively reaches for the poker to strike his rival, the Doberman recognizes its attacker and leaps on him. Wrede confesses he became enraged when Coe refused to assist his courtship of Miss Lake, precipitating the stabbing.

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Cast

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Reception

Many film historians (including William K. Everson, who pronounced it a “masterpiece” in the August 1984 issue of Films in Review) consider it one of the greatest screen adaptations of a Golden Age mystery novel, and rank it with the 1946 film Green for Danger.

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Canary Murder Case, The (1929)

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The Canary Murder Case (1929)

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Director: Malcolm St Claire, Frank Tuttle (scenes for talkie version)

Cast: William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Hall, Louise Brooks, Charles Lane, Lawrence Grant, Gustav Von Seyfertitz, E H Calvert, Eugene Pallette, Ned Sparks, Margaret Livingston

82 min

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The Canary Murder Case is a 1929 American Pre-Code crime–mystery film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Malcolm St. Clair and Frank Tuttle.

The screenplay was written by Willard Huntington Wright (as S.S. Van Dine), Albert S. Le Vino, and Florence Ryerson, based on novel The Canary Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine.

It was the first film in the series of Philo Vance films adapted from the novels, starring William Powell as Philo Vance, Jean Arthur, James Hall and Louise Brooks as “the Canary”.

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Plot

Charles Spotswoode’s son Jimmy became involved with “the Canary”, a conniving star showgirl. Fortunately, Jimmy has regained his senses and reconciled with Alyce LaFosse. However, the Canary is determined to force Jimmy to marry her so she can join the social elite, threatening to reveal that Jimmy was embezzling from his father.

She turns down the elder Spotswoode’s offer of money to leave Jimmy alone. She also telephones two men she has been blackmailing, Cleaver and Mannix, and demands one final generous gift from each of them by the next day.

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She also informs “creepy” admirer Dr. Lindquist. Her ex-husband Tony Sheel eavesdrops and wants half, but she refuses to give him anything, even after he hits her. Cleaver, Mannix and Lindquist are all shown lurking about her apartment building late that night.

Spotswoode visits her at her apartment around midnight, but cannot get her to change her mind. After he reaches the lobby of her building, he and another person hear screams from her place. They knock on the door, but she assures them that she is fine.

The next day, she is found strangled to death. The coroner places the time of death around midnight. District Attorney Markham investigates, aided by Philo Vance (a close friend of Charles Spotswoode) and Police Sergeant Heath. After all the prime suspects are questioned, Vance asks Markham to keep them waiting for a few hours.

William Powell and Louise Brooks

Markham agrees, as Vance has helped solve another case. Vance subtly maneuvers Cleaver, Mannix, Lindquist and the two Spotswoodes into playing poker to pass the time so he can observe their personality traits.

Only one shows the daring, imagination and discipline required for the crime; that man bluffs Vance, betting everything with just a pair of deuces. The suspects are then released.

Only one shows the daring, imagination and discipline required for the crime; that man bluffs Vance, betting everything with just a pair of deuces. The suspects are then released.

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Sheel, who was hiding the closet and witnessed the murder, sends the killer several blackmail letters. For his trouble, he too is strangled. A pen found at the scene has Jimmy’s name on it, so Heath arrests him for the murder. Jimmy then confesses to both murders, but Vance knows better.

He telephones Charles Spotswoode with the news and suggests they meet in an hour. Spotswoode speeds to the city from his country estate to confess, but his chauffeur makes a fatal mistake by trying to beat a train to a crossing, and Spotswoode is killed.

Now Vance has to show how he murdered the Canary in order to free Jimmy. Fortunately, he is able to figure out that the Canary was dead before Spotswoode left her apartment that night. Spotswoode had made a recording (Vance speculates it was Spotswoode himself pretending to be the woman) to fool a stuttering witness into believing she was alive and well. The record is still in the apartment, so Jimmy is released.

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Cast

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Production

This film was initially made as a silent picture, then reworked as a sound film. Louise Brooks’ refusal to cooperate in the sound version had a major impact on her career.

After filming the silent version, Brooks left for Germany to make two films for director G. W. Pabst. Her option with Paramount Pictures was up, and since the studio would not give her a raise, she saw no reason to remain in Hollywood.

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Months later, Paramount decided to re-shoot some scenes of Canary with recorded dialogue. The studio cabled Brooks in Berlin, demanding that she return to record her lines. She refused, taking the position that she no longer had an obligation to Paramount. Under the purported threat that she would never work in Hollywood again after such open defiance, she bluntly replied, “Who wants to work in Hollywood?”

Paramount spent considerable money to hire actress Margaret Livingston (the “Woman from the City” in F.W. Murnau‘s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans) to dub the dialogue for Brooks where possible, as well as to re-shoot some scenes, with Livingston seen only in profile or from behind. The golden age of German cinema soon ended with the rise of Nazism, and Brooks found herself back in Hollywood. She was never able to get good roles there again and soon retired. Though her time as a star was over, her battle with studio moguls helped add to her eventual legend.

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Accolades

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

References

  1. Jump up^ “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Heroes & Villains Nominees” (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-05.

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Benson Murder Case, The (1930)

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The Benson Murder Case (1930)

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Director: Frank Tuttle

Cast: William Powell, William Stage Boyd, Eugene Pallette, Paul Lukas, Natalie Moorhead, Richard Tucker, May Beatty, E H Calvert, Mischa Auer, Guy Oliver

65 min

The Benson Murder Case is the first novel in the Philo Vance series of mystery novels by S. S. Van Dine, which became a best-seller.

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Plot outline

New York dilettante Philo Vance decides to assist the police in investigating the death of another man-about-town because he finds the psychological aspects of the crime of interest, and feels that they would be beyond the capacities of the police, even those of his friend District Attorney Markham.

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Vance investigates the circumstances under which the body was found and reconstructs the crime sufficiently to determine that the murderer is five feet, ten and a half inches in height. Together, Vance and Markham investigate Benson’s business associates and romantic interests until Vance manages to pierce the murderer’s alibi for the time of the murder and force a confession.

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Literary significance and criticism

The novel was very loosely based upon a real-life case that had made headlines, the unsolved 1920 murder of bridge expert Joseph Bowne Elwell.

It was considered a roman à clef because the circumstances under which Elwell’s body was found—he was shot to death in a room in his home which was found to be locked from the inside, and he was not wearing his toupee—are duplicated in the novel. Modern knowledge of ballistics reveals that one of the central premises of the novel is fanciful, because the reconstruction of the height of the murderer is impossible (Dashiell Hammett had said as much at the time, in a 1927 book review).

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“The first and best, partly because Van Dine had the real-life model of the Joseph Elwell murder (1920) to hold his fancy in check.”[1]

“Vance spots the murderer almost immediately but doesn’t reveal him, allowing Markham and Sergeant Heath to fix the guilt on five successive persons by circumstantial evidence.”[2]

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Film adaptations

Paramount Pictures released The Benson Murder Case (1930) a film version directed by Frank Tuttle and starring William Powell as Philo Vance. The film was moderately faithful to the plot of the novel. Paramount also released a Spanish-language version, El Cuerpo del Delito, written by Catalan writer Josep Carner Ribalta (1898–1988), and co-directed by Cyril Gardner and A. Washington Pezet.

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References

  1. Jump up^ Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. A Catalogue of Crime. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. ISBN 0-06-015796-8
  2. Jump up^ Roseman, Mill et al.. Detectionary. New York: Overlook Press, 1971. ISBN 0-87951-041-2

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Street Of Chance (1930)

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Street Of Chance (1930)

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Director: John Cromwell

Cast: Kay Francis, William Powell, Jean Arthur, Regis Toomey, Stanley Fields, Brooks Benedict, Maurice Black, Irving Bacon, John Risso, Joan Standing

75 min

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Street of Chance is a 1930 American pre-Code film directed by John Cromwell and starring William Powell, Jean Arthur, Kay Francis and Regis Toomey. Howard Estabrook was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Achievement.

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Plot

John Marsden, a famed and powerful New York gambler who refuses to throw a game, is devoted to his wife, Alma, and his impressionistic younger brother, “Babe,” to whom he sends a wedding gift of $10,000, which Babe may keep on the condition that he does not indulge in gambling. Alma, dismayed by John’s ruthless tactics and his obsession with gambling, threatens to leave him unless he takes his winnings and leaves the city with her. He agrees.

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However, that evening Babe, who has become a cardsharp, comes to town with his new wife, Judith. He goes to see his brother, whom he believes is a stockbroker, unaware of John’s true profession and the reality that he is trying to quit and rebuild his marriage. Babe insists on playing and tries to win a fortune with his savings in an organized gambling session. He wins remarkably. The professional gambler sees that his card-playing sibling is preparing to make the same mistakes he did.

John therefore decides to risk his life and gamble one more time, and to break the gambler’s code and cheat by throwing the game, in order to disillusion Babe, thereby teaching him an unforgettable lesson. However, John is caught cheating by Dorgan and becomes a marked man. John is later mortally wounded, in spite of his wife’s attempts to save him.

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Cast

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See also

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