These B movies rolled off a production line and no time was wasted. The dialog is moronic and I imagine few scenes had the benefit of second takes. Most of the supporting actors were wooden. Maybe they were leftovers from silent movies.
It is a remake of "The Life of Jimmy Dolan" from only six years earlier and (for Hays Code reasons) they changed the story so that the hero was not the killer, but (at least initially) is persuaded that he was. This is a classic film noir opening and I settled down to watch a minor opus in my favorite genre.
But once the action moves to Arizona, film noir is forgotten and the film becomes hokey rural and sentimental comedy. It is as though halves of two different movies have been spliced together.
Garfield is right for the part but is still learning his trade here. Claude Rains is hopelessly miscast and it is painful to watch this suave and authoritative actor in his small part as a washed up detective who is the departmental butt monkey. The only "modern" actors here are Ward Bond, Louis Jean Heydt, and Ann Sheridan, all in cameo parts. Sheridan shaped up as the female lead but disappears from the movie halfway through the first act and the actual female lead has the charisma of a suet pudding. The Dead End Kids were more embarrassing than usual with Leo Gorcey playing a muted role.
Just before the end, detective Rains offers a clue that our hero is innocent. I thought that some clever detective work would ensue, but they obviously needed the set for the next movie as things are brought to a swift close instead
What another reviewer here perceptively notes as a psychologically believable change of heart by Rains, which could have been a big deal in a serious film noir, is handled so abruptly as to be absurd.
It is a remake of "The Life of Jimmy Dolan" from only six years earlier and (for Hays Code reasons) they changed the story so that the hero was not the killer, but (at least initially) is persuaded that he was. This is a classic film noir opening and I settled down to watch a minor opus in my favorite genre.
But once the action moves to Arizona, film noir is forgotten and the film becomes hokey rural and sentimental comedy. It is as though halves of two different movies have been spliced together.
Garfield is right for the part but is still learning his trade here. Claude Rains is hopelessly miscast and it is painful to watch this suave and authoritative actor in his small part as a washed up detective who is the departmental butt monkey. The only "modern" actors here are Ward Bond, Louis Jean Heydt, and Ann Sheridan, all in cameo parts. Sheridan shaped up as the female lead but disappears from the movie halfway through the first act and the actual female lead has the charisma of a suet pudding. The Dead End Kids were more embarrassing than usual with Leo Gorcey playing a muted role.
Just before the end, detective Rains offers a clue that our hero is innocent. I thought that some clever detective work would ensue, but they obviously needed the set for the next movie as things are brought to a swift close instead
What another reviewer here perceptively notes as a psychologically believable change of heart by Rains, which could have been a big deal in a serious film noir, is handled so abruptly as to be absurd.