User Reviews

Many films abuse of the music, but this one, with no music at all, sounds odd. The silence accentuates how slow this film is.

My main complain is that the makers had no idea (or didn't care) about what the criminal law should say about a situation like this. Myla can go to the police and claim that Bob acted in self defense until getting a sorethroat, but the law should decide otherwise. Unless she went and told a tall tale, what we watch in the screen is, at least, manslaughter cmmitted by Bob.

Let's see: Bob (a nobody) imposes himself uninvited to the victim's apartment. He is asked to leave but he refuses, gets increasingly agitated and finally throws a punch to the man of the house, an older man. If self defense was there, the publisher was the one defending himself, not the other way around. What irritates me is that such travesty of the law could have been avoided easily just by portraying the publisher as a furious, violent bully who launched the first punch and forced Bob to defend himself (and even Myla).

I found that this crime drama (which had a ton of potential) sadly to be a difficult viewing, nearly impossible to get through, and not a great follow-up for Lew Ayres from the original "All Quiet on the Western Front". Poor editing, creaky sound recording and a story that takes quite a while to get going, with Ayres on death row for the crime of a murder which he did not commit. The only one who knows the truth is Genevieve Tobin (an early sound glamour girl), having seen there when the victim, Purnell Pratt, fell. I didn't find the case against Ayres believable, but performances by Tobin, Dorothy Peterson (playing his concerned mother) and Frank McHugh added some juice to what the normally great Ayres failed to provide. The only scene for me that made a real impact was when Ayres was on death row and quick shots of the camera of other death row inmates screaming in his defense began to occur. This needed a ton more detail than it provided, such as scenes of Ayres at the newspaper where he had just gotten a job.

Last night I watched a pretty good little pre-coder, although, thinking about it in retrospect this morning, it's theme wouldn't fly very well today for a couple of reasons. The film was "Up for Murder" (1931) with Lew Ayres and Genevieve Tobin. Purnell Pratt, Richard Tucker, Dorothy Peterson, Frederick Burt, and Frank McHugh round out the others in the cast of any importance. It begins as a newspaper story, with young copy boy Ayres (less than 21 years of age in the movie) getting the opportunity to be a reporter. He is told to take one of the editors to a grand ball function. She is Genevieve Tobin, and she's obviously a little older than Ayres. She's also the kept woman of the editor of the paper who, yes, is married and has children. Well, Ayres falls for Tobin, and though she somewhat falls for Ayres, she's still a kept woman and she knows it. But guess who gets murdered? Guess who gets accused? Guess who gets convicted - but eventually let go? You're right on all three counts - if you guessed right, and I won't give spoilers here.

When Ayres goes home to his mother in the final scene, she gives him a birthday cake with twenty-one candles. The older kept woman and the young boy isn't new, but with the teacher-student problems going on today and making splashing news, this film might cause a major stink were it made today. Definitely pre-code and part of the cause of the Breen code.

Still, a really good film, and, I must admit, a Lew Ayres film from the early days I really like. I'm not much a fan of early Ayres, and not until he gets into the Dr. Kildare series some eight to ten years later do I really appreciate him. Some of his early films are actually boring to me. "Doorway to Hell" had Cagney run all over Ayres for the acting laurels. But in this film Ayres is really good. He broods, and his brooding is caused by a shyness, which is part of the character. It's very fitting for Ayres. He should have done more characters like this one. Maybe he was a Brando and nobody knew it - not even Ayres! Yeah, uh-huh...

One final comment. Every time I see Genevieve Tobin I think what a marvelous actress she is! I recently watched "Pleasure Cruise" and was bowled over by her great pre-code style. This, opposite that great scene stealer Roland Young! And I also recently saw her for the umpteenth time in "Petrified Forest" with Bogart, Davis, and Howard. She plays the half-way matronly Mrs. Chisholm. And I've seen her as one of the Della Streets in one of the 30's Perry Mason films. She's very good and underexploited in all she does. Somebody who should be better known. She had talent, and it always shows, as it did in this film with Ayres.

Lew Ayres was proving to be a very versatile leading man for Universal. "All Quiet on the Western Front" got his career off to a terrific start and that was backed up by his performance as a baby faced gangster in "The Doorway to Hell". But by 1931 he was becoming mired in programmer pictures where he stayed until "Holiday" eventually resurrected his career.

"Up For Murder" was an intriguing pre-code mystery directed by the equally interesting Monta Bell. Bell was maybe one of the first directors to feature an "anti hero" in his movies and while Lew Ayres was certainly not one, his characterization was that of an immature boy who quickly became infatuated with Myra and then gets involved over his head. Myra was played by the ever welcome (to me) Genevieve Tobin, who, I believe, was never given her due. She proved she could play every type of role from scintillating comedy, to heavy emoting and subdued drama but Hollywood never gave her a chance!! Anyway Robert meets her when he has to escort her to the International Ball, he was a lowly copy boy before being promoted to reporter and this is his first big assignment. His escort is Myra and the next day his piece is published, a glowing tribute to the virtues of Myra - oh, and a bit about the ball. Myra is flattered and decides to string him along - she is the mistress of the Editor, William Winter (Purnell Pratt) and is beginning to be fed up with always being second in his life. In typical pre- code fashion her flat (courtesy of Winter) is pretty palatial (innocent Robert says "It must cost a lot" to which Myra responds, meaningfully "It does cost a lot"). Before too long, his mother is despairing of him as he "steals" their savings to lavish gifts on Myra, who still thinks of him as an amusing boy.

Things come to a head when Robert confronts Winter in Myra's flat ("My flat" Winter says) and Winter is accidentally killed. Wheels are then set in motion by the paper to avoid a scandal, even Robert's mother is visited and "schooled" in how to answer questions. They leak the story that he has been killed by an unknown assailant but Robert, overcome by remorse, confesses to the police.

In anyone else's hands, it would have been dreary but under Monta Bell's direction and with superlative casting of Lew Ayres, Genevieve Tobin and Dorothy Peterson (who wasn't much older than Tobin but in typical Hollywood fashion was cast as Ayre's mother!!!) it was quite an interesting movie.

Recommended.

However, unlike some of the fast-paced Lee Tracy vehicles from the same era, the newsroom of a big city paper is really just the back-drop for a coming of age tale that ends up in tragedy.

Lew Ayres plays Robert Marshall, one of the men working at the printing press putting out the daily news, but he longs to be a writer. Frank McHugh plays reporter Collins, who for some reason is always drunk and always broke. This routine gets old in a hurry, but fortunately he's not on screen too long. Just long enough to meet young Bob and get him a job on the paper. Don't get me wrong, I love McHugh over at Warner Brothers later on, but the drunk routine here was just too much. He does sober up at the end, though, when the circumstances call for it.

Bob is only 20, and he is full of the idealism of youth, having always wanted to be a writer. Bob's mother is proud of her son's new job, and when he mentions that he'll have Sundays off so they can take drives in the country together, his mother realistically predicts that Bob will soon have a girlfriend and that she expects to fall into the background as far as his free time and attention go. However, the actual girlfriend that materializes is a far cry from what mom had in mind.

Genevieve Tobin plays Myra Deane, writer of the society column of the paper. She's a beautiful woman used to beautiful things, but her family has lost all of its money. She has traded on her remaining assets to become the mistress of a wealthy -and permanently married - man, William Winter, the owner of the paper, with all the monetary benefits that come with it. One night Myra needs an escort to a society ball, and the city editor barks out to a sheepish Bob that he will be her date. Bob is instantly smitten with sophisticated Myra, and he projects all of his youthful ideals upon their romance. However, one night Bob goes to Myra's apartment unannounced and finds Myra with Winter. He's heard the rumors and not believed them, but he can't deny what he sees, and a confrontation ensues that ends violently.

The odd thing about this film is that the two leading ladies - Genevieve Tobin as Bob's girlfriend and Dorothy Peterson as Bob's mother - are actually only two years apart in age, yet they are made up to look decades apart. Most remarkable is that Dorothy Peterson was only 33 when this movie was made, yet looks, speaks, and moves like a woman of about 50. Ms. Tobin is playing a woman much closer to her own actual age. Lew Ayres is very good in this one and carries the lead well, especially at the end when he is in such despair over his actions and lack of judgment that he literally does not care if he lives or dies. Highly recommended.

SYNOPSIS: Everyone but the new cub reporter is well aware that the New York newspaper's super-ritzy, chain-smoking fashion editor is also the mistress of the newspaper's super-wealthy publisher, even though said publisher is married and has a grown-up daughter. Needless to say, the cub falls for the lady and so bitterly resents the publisher's attempt to break up this alliance that he …

COMMENT: A once highly regarded studio chief administrator, screenwriter, producer, director, Monta Bell did all things well. This superbly produced, cleverly directed and hard-hitting comedy/drama is typical of his approach. Not only has Bell drawn magnificent performances from his cast (Genevieve Tobin's portrait is absolutely unforgettable, while Lew Ayres, almost right at the start of his 154 acting credits, was never better. In fact he was rarely even a quarter as persuasive as he is here) but Bell fills in the background – whether it be high-life, low-life or somewhere in between – with relish. Maybe the comedy relief with Frank McHugh is slightly overdone, but it does serve as a neat conclusion. The other actors are all perfect, particularly Purnell Pratt as the jealous publisher, and Frederick Burt as the over-worked city editor. Burt was a Broadway stage actor who made only a few films. As IMDb points out, he was billed third in "The Cavalier" (1902). I can add that he was also one of the leads in "Minick" (1924) in which he starred with O.P. Heggie, Phyllis Povah and Antoinette Perry! Although the play ran only 154 performances at the Booth, it was purchased by Warner Brothers and eventually emerged as "The Expert" (1932), and was then remade in 1939 as "No Place to Go".