User Reviews

Determined to keep her young son from falling into the hands of his greedy paternal relatives, a young mother leaves him in the hands of pilot Chester Morris and child protection services representative Sally Eilers who initially battle (and try to outsmart each other) yet ultimately come together with the young kid's (Scotty Beckett) best interests at heart. They come across country bumpkin Henry Travers who helps them out, not realizing what at first he's getting himself into, but somehow hooked by Beckett's sweet smile and love for Travers' dog. The poor kid must disguise himself several ways (even dressing up as a little girl!), and even gets to hide in a hay wagon as a way of deceiving the distant relatives he wants no part of. All of this adventure is to get the kid to Mexico to be reunited safely with his mother, and that involves many seemingly silly adventures where Beckett ends up flying a plane, cars catch on fire, and worry over Travers' ailing pooch sends Beckett in girl's clothes (minus the bonnet he had on earlier) to the vet. This is a fast moving programmer that is entertaining, if completely far fetched, and features several eye rolling sequences, such as the sudden appearance of a black gospel choir straight out of "The Green Pastures" and the attempted disguise of Morris, Eilers and Beckett in extremely sloppy looking black face make-up.

When this story begins, a strange woman with a child shows up at the airstrip where Mitch is waiting. She begs him to fly the kid to Mexico. Now there are some SERIOUS problems with this. First, it's not her kid. Second, she says the kid is the subject of a custody battle and Mitch should trust her that taking the kid out of the country is for the best. Now who would be insane enough to agree to do this job considering he knows NOTHING other than the law is chasing after the kid?! Before you answer....let's add that the woman's actions then destroyed Mitch's airplane!! Now...would any sane person help this woman to, essentially, kidnap the child? No one...right?! Well, that is the HUGE problem with this movie. Its plot is pro-kidnapping and Mitch's actions simply make no sense. In fact, the actors try their best but the plot makes no sense not does anyone's actions. A silly piece of writing....and among Chester Morris' worst outings. And, to top it all off, the ending where the three go in blackface across the border is simply awful!

Since the Lindbergh case, the crime of kidnapping had become so distasteful to the Hays office that it had been barred from the screen since 1934 except 1. "when the subject is handled with restraint and discretion" and 2. "when the child is returned unharmed". "Pursuit" ticked both of these boxes. Based on "Gallant Highway" a novel length story by Lawrence G. Blochman, it was filmed on highways between San Francisco and Mexico and lived up to it's title by being a fast moving story of the efforts of dare devil pilot Mitch (the always excellent Chester Morris) trying to protect little Scotty Becket from selfish relatives. Of course there always has to be a girl and cute Sally Eilers is Maxine, who tags along to see that the job is done. From the first few minutes there is non-stop action, first the plane takes off with only Donald (Beckett) aboard, then Mitch saves the day by rescuing Donald from a smashed plane, then in turn from a burning car. There is an element of Bonnie and Clyde as Maxine and Mitch evade a backwoods policeman and end up at an auto court where they encounter very pesky Henry Travers who, along with his dog, "Perfume", tails them all the way to the Mexican border. Along the way Donald is disguised as a girl and they even resort to blackface to evade the baddies!!

In keeping with the Hays Code, there is really no sign of any desperate villains (there are doubts all along about C. Henry Gordon though). Henry Travers (Henry Travers, I ask you) is the only person they can't shake, he eventually abducts Donald but when he realises "Perfume" is sick, that's it - his most important mission after that is to find a vet!! There is a piece in the paper about Donald's mother being a floozie and a showgirl but as played by Dorothy Peterson she could pass for America's First Lady!! As usual Chester Morris is first rate, he had been associated with MGM from his earliest films and if he had signed an exclusive contract could have been a star of the first magnitude - but he may not have got the variety of roles he was able to find if he had. Scotty Beckett was one of the cutest child actors ever - he was originally part of "Our Gang" but he soon won roles in prominent films ("Anthony Adverse", "King's Row" etc). Unfortunately the last few years of his life were filled with unpleasant stories, including drugs and violence. A sad ending for a beautiful little boy!!

Pursuit (1935)

** (out of 4)

A pilot (Chester Morris) is asked by a woman (Sally Eilers) to take a small child (Scotty Beckett) across the border into Mexico so that his mother doesn't lose him in a custody battle with his evil aunt. The pilot agrees to do it for the money but soon he begins to grow fond of both the child and woman. This was a fairly decent "B" picture that features a nice cast doing fine work but the film would eventually run out of steam before it could really pack any sort of punch. Being a major fan of Morris added some entertainment as he is a constant joy to watch. The screenplay offers him very little but he manages to have some nice comic touches and his chemistry with Eilers is right on the mark. Former Our Gang star Beckett certainly delivers a lot of charm and cuteness in his role as the kid and it's rather shocking to see the young kid here who would grow up to have a very destructive lifestyle. After seeing him here it's still rather shocking to see how his life would end. The film has a lot going on in the first thirty-minutes and this is where the film is at its most charming. Everything possible happens and the director keeps everything moving at a fast pace but things come crashing down when Henry Travers character enters the film. After this things slow down and eventually crash at the end. The most shocking thing is the ending where we see the three stars in blackface.