With the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, it is very apparent that the movies would exploit that tragedy with fictional theories of its own. Here, there's no ransom demand or reasoning revealed to motivate a kidnapping, just a troubled and violent man who commits the crime and ends up in prison on another unrelated charge. He's involved in stopping a prison riot and ends up on the loose, locating the kidnapped girl and claiming to be her father. Ironically, he knows her real father and keeps her real identity subject until an old prison cellmate shows up with blackmail on their mind.
It's not just complex; it's convoluted, and yet is watchable because of the actors involved. Victor MacLaglen plays a truly reprehensible character, with Peter Lorre equally vile as the slimy cellmate. Walter Connelly plays the likable multi- millionaire who certainly didn't deserve decades of suffering at MacLaglen's hands. June Lang is the sweet noble young lady who accepts her newly found dad without question, even dumping her boyfriend because of MacLaglen's possessiveness. John Carradine has no lines but his long, menacing face makes his small part as the man behind the prison riot memorable.
This is a film that leaves me with very mixed feelings. It really seems to have no motivation, either for the main character or the writers for writing it the way they did. Had this been made a couple of years before at the height of the depression, it would have had more impact. But with a character who is really a brute as the focus and seemingly going to get away with the worst of his crimes, it makes this often disturbing and depressing.
It's not just complex; it's convoluted, and yet is watchable because of the actors involved. Victor MacLaglen plays a truly reprehensible character, with Peter Lorre equally vile as the slimy cellmate. Walter Connelly plays the likable multi- millionaire who certainly didn't deserve decades of suffering at MacLaglen's hands. June Lang is the sweet noble young lady who accepts her newly found dad without question, even dumping her boyfriend because of MacLaglen's possessiveness. John Carradine has no lines but his long, menacing face makes his small part as the man behind the prison riot memorable.
This is a film that leaves me with very mixed feelings. It really seems to have no motivation, either for the main character or the writers for writing it the way they did. Had this been made a couple of years before at the height of the depression, it would have had more impact. But with a character who is really a brute as the focus and seemingly going to get away with the worst of his crimes, it makes this often disturbing and depressing.