CinemaSerf
7.0/10Jul 12, 2024
This is quite an enjoyable film-noir from Fritz Lang that sees wealthy department store owner "Morris" (Harry Carey) use his position to try and help ex-convicts get back on their feet. For many of them it's a catch-22. If they don't have a job they don't get parole and vice versa - so he gives them jobs. Is he just being overly optimistic of might he really be making a difference? Well his benevolence is to be sorely tested when "Joe" (George Raft) appears on the scene. He takes an immediate shine to "Helen" (Sylvia Sidney) and they get married - except, well, she's on parole too so can't get married and that narks "Joe" back into his old habits - and a robbery of the store is planned. Will they get away with it, though? The crime caper elements of this aren't so important, really. This is more a gentle character study of nature and nurture with a little benign opportunity thrown in for good measure. There's a fun scene with "Helen" trying to explain to the would-be thieves just how the economics of crime at their (low) level of the criminal food chain might work which does raise a smile and there's a good chemistry between Sidney and a Raft who's left his menacing hat at the stage door this time. The ending is a little bit twee, but we've some entertainment and the tiniest bit of engaging moralising to keep it going along nicely until the - as well as a few ditties from Kurt Weill and Sam Coslow.
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