You won't be disappointed!

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Crappy film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This picture gets a lot more complicated than it had to in order to tell it's story of recently released ex-con John Bradley (Ralph Bellamy) who gets mixed up with a shady gangster and his on the run moll. I was left a bit bewildered in the early going when bad guys Robson (Melvyn Douglas) and Conroy (Reed Brown Jr.) track the disheveled Louise Loring (Fay Wray) to Bradley's cabin, where Robson winds up shooting Bradley's dog. After a rather major scuffle in which Conroy is knocked unconscious and Bradley wrestles the gun away from Robson, the hoods are simply told to leave by the virtually non-plussed Bradley. Had Bradley called the authorities right then and there, the story would have been over, but then it would only have been about a twenty minute movie.After Loring reveals her relationship with Robson in a series of flashbacks, Bradley decides to help her out, but they'll have to take it on the lam because if Conroy dies, it's a manslaughter rap. Further complicating matters for Bradley is local sheriff Grant (Granville Bates), who has a personal reason to put Bradley away - his daughter Helen (Nell O'Day) has a crush on him.As if there weren't enough characters to keep track of, Roscoe Ates portrays Bradleys' buddy from the Big House, who has a penchant for hocking fancy jewelry. It didn't seem to make much sense to me that he was going to steal his own wife's watch out of her purse, but that's the kind of movie this was. Ates usually did duty as a comic relief sidekick in B Westerns of the era, but here he was a rather lame character and his gimmick didn't seem to work.Ultimately the film makes it's way to a somewhat reasonable ending, although it calls for the split second timing that films of the era relied on. Bradley arrives just in the nick of time to prevent Robson from offing his partner to put the manslaughter angle back in play. Besting Robson for a second time, Bradley and Loring close the picture out in a clinch, but I never got the feeling that they would live happily ever after.

For a poverty row film this really has some stars - Ralph Bellamy, Melvyn Douglas and Fay Wray. Fay Wray was very beautiful but not much of an actress. She was very lucky to appear in some "cult" movies and when she did appear in independents she was surrounded by dependable stars (Ralph Bellamy, Melvyn Douglas, Joel McCrea). She even had the advantage of having Dashiell Hammett write the story. Even though this was a "Commonwealth" production, it was filmed at the old Biograph Studios in New York.John Bradley (Ralph Bellamy) has just been released from prison after serving time for killing a man in a fit of temper. He wants to escape the rat race and return to his cabin in the woods. He feels that by staying away from people he will be able to keep on the straight and narrow. Fay Wray makes a dramatic entrance as Louise Loring, clutching at her flimsy dress, who stumbles into his cabin in the dead of night. She is running from Tony Robson (Melvyn Douglas) who has followed her through the woods. Robson is the local playboy and Louise refuses to go with him. He gets his own back by telephoning Helen's parents and telling them exactly where she is. She was John's girl before he went to prison and has lost no time in trailing him to his mountain cabin. Helen's father bursts in and makes trouble, but John, heeding Louise's word, keeps his temper. Louise then tells him how she met Tony. She was an aspiring musician and Tony believed in her enough to finance her career. When her first concert is an "artistic" success - in other words, a flop - Tony makes his true feelings known - he wants payment of the loan in only one way!!After yet another altercation with Tony, in which his friend, Conroy, is left with a fractured skull, John, with Louise in tow, goes on the run - being out on parole, he can't afford to get into trouble.This is a nifty little thriller - very claustrophobic, until about half way through, when they leave the cabin and go on the run. Before Ralph Bellamy became remembered for witless fiancée portrayals ( usually jilted by the heroine in favour of Cary Grant, Edward G. Robinson and even Fred Astaire) he took on a variety of roles, including a ruthless gangster in "The Secret Six" (1931).For a film released after the code (which came about in July 1934) it was decidedly racy with lots of eyebrow raising scenes. Louise's flimsy dress that has a habit of coming off the shoulder. John's friends Tommy and Lil - Tommy later introduces Lil as his wife but the initial scenes show him trying to sneak out of her room while taking jewelry. Louise has a terrible reputation - although there is no reason to believe she is "one of those women". Also Kraus, the lawyer, is quick to book Louise and himself into a room as Mr. and Mrs. Smith. There was also a disrobing scene where Louise and John had to share a room. I don't know how it got past the censors at the end of 1934!!!Recommended.

Ralph Bellamy is a man with a temper. After having gotten into a scuffle and accidentally killing a man he's sent to prison for manslaughter, he released. Moving back home he resigns himself to living a life away from people. Unfortunately the local sheriff doesn't like him, more so because his daughter is in love with him. One night while he is attempting to get the sheriff's daughter to leave there is a knock at the door. Its Fay Wray, she's on her way to the train station and in flight from Melvyn Douglas a no good cad with dark designs on everyone and everything. Douglas eventually frames Bellamy for the beating of one of his henchmen and it looks like Bellamy will be going back to prison, this time for murder. Okay drama with a very good cast is hurt by a very talky and very static style. People sit around and talk way too much with the result that you want to shout at the TV get on with it. In all honesty I hit the fast forward a couple of times because I really wished they'd talk less and do more. I suspect my lack of patience was more owing to the lateness of the hour rather than anything else, since the cast is good and manages to sell the nonsense on screen.

I've known of Ralph Bellamy for most of my life. During the fifties and sixties, he was a bit of a staple in television dramas and had a fairly extensive movie career. Rediscovering him in some of these old films, he appears to have a quality that was utilized. He was frequently used as a very masculine character, a kind of dominator of women. He seems to be characterized as a person who once he makes his mind up, won't listen to anyone. This is no exception. He has been framed and put in prison for manslaughter, his temper getting the best of him. It isn't long before he is in trouble again, hooking up with Fay Wray (who really was quite beautiful) and alienating a few people in his community. The problem with all this is that we are expected to believe that people will act in such knee jerk ways, not looking at evidence. Of course, the good guys don't help because instead of pleading their cases, they just take off. Shootings occur and people end up making deals when a simple explanation would have probably circumvented the whole thing. This is a sort of pleasant movie, but not worth a whole lot. There is some pretty bad comic relief that only distracts from what is supposed to be serious.