Directed: Roland West

Year: 1929

Nominated: Best Picture, Best Actor – Chester Morris

Plot in 25 Words: Dark and twisty film offering a glimpse into the old-school workings of undercover police. Lies and deceit lead to a vengeful and bloody shootout.

In My Opinion: Wow this film was impressive. The plot was highly intelligent and well planned out. Reveals were done carefully and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There was lots of experimentation with sound and light angles. As I’m not entirely familiar with styles of the 20s I’m not sure I was entirely aware of this experimentation. One thing I hadn’t noticed in other films as the cutaway to a new scene. Dancing girls. Barely dressed dancing girls. Between every major scene a line of barely dressed dancing girls moseyed across my screen. How salacious!

There was the apparently standard abuse towards women, coupled with sheer enjoyment by the man doing the abusing. I’m really not enjoying how frequently this kind of scene appears in films of this era. It really doesn’t add anything to the plot. There are a couple of really terrible looking fake punches thrown but sadly all the violence towards women doesn’t look fake. I think one of the biggest problems I’ve had watching these films is the outdated attitudes toward women, and race. Some of it is very uncomfortable viewing.

Slightly less uncomfortable viewing was the final few minutes. . Oh what a great shootout. Oh it was delightful. There was some very cheesy action sequences, including firing a gun through the pocket of a coat.

Chick hides in a closet towards the end. A ‘rapid’ burst of machine gun fire rips through the wall causing Chick to display the slowest, most pathetic ‘quick’ recoil from the bullets.

Chick completes his slide into cowardice by begging, crying and pleading for his life. Asking for mercy, mercy which is denied by a good cop turned bad. Very dramatic ending.

Star Performer: Eleanor Griffith as Joan Manning Williams. The good guys and the bad guys played their parts almost to comedy. She played the role of innocent/naive Joan very well.

Overall: Mostly enjoyable. A lot more intelligent a setup then I would have expected for the era. Regis Toomey as an undercover cop playing a constantly drunk, slightly retarded waster was a highlight.