Alias Jimmy Valentine

Famous for being MGM's first foray into talkies (goat-glanded the last two reels) and for being lost. While the complete film is, so far, lost, a 9.5mm 40-minute cut-down exists and I've been privileged to see it. As for the Vitaphone soundtrack, I believe a few bits survive.

The plot has William Haines as a snappy safe cracker. The cut-down that survives (a French print) opens with Haines setting up a safe cracking with his gang (Karl Dane, Tully Marshall) in an American Express sort of office. Haines then rushes to the local precinct to report a stolen valise just as the bomb he set up goes off and his team rushes in to clean out the safe, He's got a cop (looks like Fred Kelsey) as a witness. Pretty slick.

Next we jump to a new town where Haines has plans for the local bank but he meets and falls for Leila Hyams, who happens to be the daughter of the bank president. As in many films of the era, she also has a sister and brother 20 years her junior. Eventually he's offered a job in the bank (how sweet) but a police inspector (Lionel Barrymore) is on his trail. One day, while they are playing cat and mouse......

The little girl gets locked in the bank safe and Hyams is having a hissy and Haines is trying to figure out what to do: let the kid suffocate or crack the safe and give away his real identity. Oh, what will he do?

Based on a story by O. Henry and directed by Jack Conway. What's left is a skeleton, but we can only hope it will some day be fleshed out. The film was among MGM's biggest hits of 1928.

Filmed in 1915 with Robert Warwick and again in 1920 with Bert Lytell.

"Alias Jimmy Valentine" is based on a popular stage play, which in turn was adapted from one of O. Henry's most famous stories. This film was already in production (as a silent) when MGM hastily added a few crude talkie sequences. All the major cast members were aware they would have to speak on screen eventually. This explains why Valentine's burly henchman, named "Red" in the original play, has been renamed "Swede" here; someone at MGM must have realised that the actor cast in this role (Karl Dane) would soon be typecast by his heavy Scandinavian accent. (A successful silent actor, Dane would tragically commit suicide during the early talkies era when his accent doomed him exclusively to Nordic roles.)

Charming rogue safecracker Jimmy Valentine (William Haines, in fine voice) has come to town, with his two accomplices Swede and Bill Avery, for the express purpose of heisting a payroll from bank president John Lane. But then Jimmy gets a look at fair Rose, the banker's daughter, and he falls instantly in love. (Leila Hyams is meltingly beautiful as Rose, but talkies would now reveal her hideous Noo Yawk accent. Unfortunately, despite Leila's incredible beauty, William Haines's performance completely fails to convey any interest in feminine charms. He handles his dialogue well, though.)

Changing his name to "Lee Randolph", Jimmy gets an honest job and sets out to woo this sweet Rose. There's a charming scene of the two of them together on a garden swing. Jimmy's henchmen are left to their own devices. When Avery pulls a robbery on his own, and gets shot dead in the attempt, Jimmy is more convinced than ever that he was right to reform. But now his past is catching up with him: a tough detective named Doyle (Lionel Barrymore, hamming shamelessly) has come to town, hunting Jimmy for past safecracking jobs.

Jimmy proposes to Rose: she accepts, and her dad offers "Lee Randolph" an executive job at the bank. It looks like Jimmy's new identity is safe. But, speaking of safes: Rose's little sister has toddled into the bank's airtight vault, and Rose's little brother Bobby has pushed shut the heavy door! It's got a time lock, so the innocent little brat will suffocate unless someone can crack open the safe. "Do something!" Rose pleads to Jimmy, with tears welling up in those meltingly beautiful blue (well, monochrome) eyes. Jimmy glances round, and he sees that detective Doyle has strolled into the bank. If Jimmy tries to rescue the little brat, he'll have to demonstrate his safecracking talents while Doyle is watching. What to do?

When this movie was made in 1928, O. Henry's original story was so well known that the "surprise" ending is obvious ... and that story is still quite popular today. The climactic safecracking scene in this film is fairly suspenseful, and would have been even better if it had been filmed silent. Most part-talkies are awkward, with their jumps in and out of silent-film grammar, and this film is one of the more awkward examples. In 1928, when movie audiences were eager to hear movies make noises, any sound effect or any audible dialogue (no matter how extraneous) was sure to boost a movie's box-office returns. Here, the talkie sequences are filled with unnecessary comments, crowd noises and "rhubarb", just to keep the soundtrack busy. During the safecracking climax, when one of the actors says "Be quiet!", I wanted to reply: "Right, you lot: be quiet!"

"Alias Jimmy Valentine" is a goodish film that would have been much better as a standard silent. Leila Hyams, with her ripe lips and golden-blonde hair and her gorgeous figure (shown off to excellent advantage in her costumes here, including an amazingly scanty skirt during the swinging scene), could have become a major star in the 1930s if only she'd invested in a few elocution lessons. In most of her early talking roles, she sounds as if she's got a mouthful of Brooklyn.

The O. Henry story "A Retrieved Reformation" was already an old hat at the start of the talkie era. Filmed most famously in 1915 with Maurice Tourneur at the helm, this MGM adaptation starred the charming Billy Haines as Jimmy Valentine, safe-cracker.

The story is as follows: Jimmy Valentine is a top bank robber but he gets caught and sent to prison. Convincing the higher-ups that he was framed and deserves a pardon, Jimmy begins to lead an honest life. But the law has not forgotten and a certain policeman is determined to see Jimmy Valentine jailed once and for all.

This film is lost. No known copies exist. Any review that does not describe the time, place and circumstances of a modern screening must be suspect.

Update: Rejoice! A 9.5mm four-reel abridgement survives! This does NOT contain the talkie sequences and is presented as a silent with French intertitles. It was recently screened (2017) at the Cinema Museum in London.

ALIAS JIMMY VALENTINE exists as a 4-reel silent French 9.5mm release (as JIMMY LE MYSTERIEUX). It was shown at the cinema museum, Kennington, London, Wednesday 12 July 2017.Piano Accompaniment. Other titles shown were all on 9.5mm, THE YOUNGER GENERATION (1929)French 4-reels as L'ARGENT NE FAIS PAS LE BONHEUR, and MERVEILLEUSE VIE DE JEANNE D'ARC British 2-reel 9.5mm print, as SAINT JOAN THE MAID.