Last night's movie was "The Wrong Road,"(1937) a cautionary tale for Depression-era young people considering a life of crime. "Jimmy Caldwell" (Richard Cromwell) and "Ruth Holden" (Helen Mack) are two college kids from wealthy backgrounds, but the entitlement they've come to expect hasn't panned out after the Great Crash of 1929. Instead of the stockbroker position he was promised after graduation, Jimmy finds himself working in a bank, "for peanuts" as he puts it. Ruth is similarly disillusioned, declaring her accustomed lifestyle a birthright.
Thus, they have no qualms about executing their next move, which is to steal 100 grand from Jimmy's bank. They plan it out over a bottle of expensive champagne (that they can't pay for) in a high class restaurant. Jimmy will take the cash from the bank's vault and slip it to Ruth during a transaction. They even plan to confess the next day and accept prison time, after hiding the money, of course, to be retrieved upon their parole.
They rationalize the theft by telling each other they'll have "earned" the money by spending up to ten years in prison. "I'll only be 33 when I get out" says Jimmy. "We'll deserve every penny of it", Helen adds, "and we're hurting no one." Their belief is that they're stealing from an insured institution and "earning the money" by confessing and going to prison.
Before turning themselves in, they hide the dough in an antique music box, and mail it to Ruth's Uncle Billy, an antique dealer, with instructions for him to hold it in storage for them.
They end up serving only two years of their sentences, when the bank's insurance agent "Mike Roberts" (Lionel Atwill) convinces the prison board that it would be in everyone's best interests, including Jimmy's and Ruth's, if they were given early parole, because, he says, it will lead to the bank's recovery of the money. It's his job to do that, so naturally he's for their parole, but he also believes it will redeem the pair from a life of crime. "Ten years in prison will only harden them further."
But major complications ensue when Jimmy and Ruth are let out, and resolutely try to keep the money for themselves. First, they find out that Uncle Billy has died. All his antiques are now up for auction. They go to the auction house in Sunnyvale, California (via the Chatsworth train station), only to be outbid by an eccentric auction habitue. It turns out he's given the music box to his sister, so it's back on the train for Jimmy and Ruth, but by now, Jimmy's old cellmate from San Quentin is also on the trail, Jimmy having stupidly (and unbelievably, Mr. Screenwriter) told him about the money, the music box and the location of Uncle Billy's antique shop while he was in stir. It becomes a race to converge on the music box, between Jimmy and Ruth (who now thinks it wasn't worth it), and Blackie the cellmate. Insurance agent Roberts is on their trail the entire time. "How did you find us in Sunnyvale?" Jimmy asks, incredulous. "It's my business to know things," Roberts answers. And, he's also on a mission, besides recovering the money, to save "the kids" from choosing "The Wrong Road". You can almost picture the movie's tagline: "Attention 30's Parents! Take Your Children To This Movie!" And at the end, both Jimmy and Ruth, having been saved, extol the virtues of honest living. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Wrong Road", our first American movie in many weeks. The picture is slightly soft. ////
The previous night, we had another good one from director John Gilling: "Tiger by the Tail"(1954). For some reason, the Brits had a motion picture fascination with American reporters covering their turf in the late '50s, which is what happens to "John Desmond" (Larry Parks) when his magazine assignment is changed from Paris to London at the last minute. He's picked up at the airport by his World News colleague "Jane Claymore" (Constance Smith), who brings him up to speed on all things English, being that he's never been there before. He's a ladies man (of course, what American reporter isn't?) so after Jane turns him down for a dinner date, he goes to a nightclub where a torch singer is belting a tune (which always signals the arrival of a Femme Fatale). Spying "Anna Ray" (Lisa Daniely) at the bar, coolly pulling a cigarette from her pack, Desmond is quick with his lighter, then he's pulling up a chair and buying the next round. Soon they're dancing, then it's back to her place for a make out session. Desmond likes Anna, so much so that he's late on his assignment, which is supposed to cover "The cultural attitude of the modern Englishman". His editor is complaining. Jane Claymore keeps reminding him of his deadline, but he just can't keep his mind off Anna, and when he arrives at her apartment unannounced one afternoon, and overhears her through the door talking to another man, he becomes jealous. Later, when she lets him in, he sees her diary on a table and snatches it!....."Ahh, let's see who you wrote more about, me or that other guy?"
This doesn't go over well, and Anna pulls a gun. "Give me back my diary." When Desmond assumes she's joking, or that the gun isn't loaded, he soon finds out differently. In a schtruggle, it goes off. Anna is dead.
Not knowing what else to do, Desmond wipes her apartment of fingerprints, runs to the nearest bar and gets hammered. Jane Claymore finds him there and again reminds him of his deadline. Unable to hold it in any longer, he tells her about the shooting, swears it was in self defense and she believes him. This is when the plot gets launched, because when Desmond and Jane open Anna's diary, which he took from her apartment, they discover it's full of coded messages; runs of numbers and phrases.
Figuring Anna was some kind of government agent, Jane becomes scared and tells Desmond to lay off. "Even if she was MI5, they have nothing on you, your prints are all gone." But then, Holy Smokes! Desmond remembers he sent Anna a telegram the same day. "I wanted to tell her I loved her." He was jealous of the other man, who will turn out to be a bad guy. And that's why the telegram is dangerous; because if this man finds it at her apartment, he'll know who shot her.
This begins a Mission Impossible-type "peeling away of the layers of secrecy" in which reporter Desmond, in his search for the truth, follows twisting plot threads, not knowing if he's up against organized criminals, a shadowy government agency or both. He'll face 3rd degree torture from The Other Man and his thugs (lead thug played memorably by Ronan O'Casey, he of the Canadian pompadour and big schnozz). They want Anna's diary back. Desmond manages to escape their clutches, but is then found by the coppers, who mistake him for an amnesia victim (don't ask, too left field by the screenwriter). He gets taken to the hospital, plays along with his diagnosis, while Jane visits him to try and break the diary code.
It turns out they are dealing with an international gang of counterfeiters who are trying to collapse the British economy by flooding the market with American dollars (how very John LeCarre of them). The mysterious Other Man will schtop at nothing to get Anna Ray's diary back, because it contains the names of all the group's international contacts. Desmond and Jane painstakingly break the diary code, but the key to the whole flick is when The Other Man leaves Desmond in the custody of the lanky henchman O'Casey, (a great caricature actor). Actress Constance Smith's life was incredibly tragic, read up on her at IMDB. You'd never know it from her performance here, which is first rate. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Tiger by the Tail", verging on Two Huge. We always like to point out that director Gilling helmed the greatest zombie movie of all time, "Plague of the Zombies", but his specialty seems to be crime and espionage. This one is highly recommended and the picture is very good. ////
And that's all for tonight. My blogging music is Hatfield and the North (both albums), my late night is Handel's Tamerlano Opera. I hope your week is going well, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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