Dark Hazard

Dark Hazard is 80 minutes of sheer delight in this Edward G. Robinson '34 item directed by Alfred Green that I was totally unfamiliar with. Robinson gives a heart warming interpretation of a race track tout and gambler who falls for Genvieve Tobin, somewhat of a wasp with whom they have wedding bliss in California where he's hired to look after Sidney Toler's 1/3 interest in a dog track. His infatuation with gambling causes her to move back with her mother in (Ohio?); he follows her and patronizes the local dog track where he follows the horse Dark Hazard closely. After the horse is injured he buys it for $25 and nurses it back to health and wealth. He has left Tobin and goes back to his old flame, Glenda Farrell (at her intense best). Has all of Warner's fine snap crackle and pop ingredients of that era.

Interesting film about the early days of American greyhound racing based on W R Burnett 1933 Novel by the same name,I read the book it is above average and better than the movie for it goes into deeper character development and motives which is hard to do in a 72 minute movie. Few people realize it but WR Burnett was a greyhound owner and a huge fan of greyhound racing.The champion dog "War Cry" featured in the movie was actually owned by W.R Burnett.Greyhound racing as we know it today started in Emeryville,Ca. back in 1919.I believe the film was released in 1934 so the sport had been around for only 15 years when the movie was released.The filming of the actual greyhound race scenes were beautifully done,it even shows hurdle races which was later banned.

The movie has a great cast of well known stars of that time but Edward G Robinson is the star here,for he is in almost every scene.It is pre-code ,Buck the Edward G Robinson character makes reference to sexually satisfying his girlfriend which would of been cut out after the code was established also the ending is very positive which probably would of changed after the code was set up for most people looked at gambling as a vice back then.One mistake in the movie was it made reference to greyhound racing in Hawaii but it never existed there.

The movie moves along swiftly and covers a lot of years.Robinson does a convincing job in this film as a man who puts his love of greyhound racing over everything else.This is the only known movie totally based on greyhound racing.This film was remade a few years later as Wine, Women and Horses but Dark Hazard if far superior to the remake , the remake does star the beautiful Ann Sheridan which is its only attribute.

Edward G. Robinson gives an excellent performance in "Dark Hazard" from 1934.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Dark Hazard was a dog!

Jim "Buck" Turner (Robinson) is a compulsive gambler, winning $20,000 at the track and losing $20,000 gambling. It's so bad he has to borrow $5 to get home.

He winds up taking a room in a boarding house, where he meets Marge (Genevieve Turner) and falls in love with her. Though her mother doesn't approve, they get married.

Marge is unhappy about his gambling, and Jim keeps saying he'll stop. He doesn't. One day, he runs into an old girlfriend, Valerie (Glenda Farrell) - she'd like to start up again, but he wants to be faithful to Marge. Later on she's there in down times.

Jim becomes enamored of dog racing and wants to buy a dog named Dark Hazard. But he costs $5,000.

When he wins big and brings home a huge amount of money, Marge, who is pregnant, leaves him and takes all the money. She writes that when he's ready, she will have a place for him.

A few years later, he returns to Marge, who is living with her mother, and meets his little boy. She takes him back though she is dating an old beau, Pres.

The next time he sees the dog, he's broken his leg and about to be put down. Jim buys him for $25. Once the dog is well, he starts winning again.

Many pre-code elements, including a double bed.

You can't help but like Jim and feel sorry for him at times. But you also know he's a survivor, just like Dark Hazard.

Sidney Toler, famous as Charlie Chan, is very good as a guy who gets Robinson to gamble again.

I have to say the dog racing theme was a gigantic turnoff. It's a bad sport, with thousands of greyhounds abandoned every year when their usefulness has ended.

In this movie, the original owner loved the dog; later it's obvious he no longer cares about him. That isn't typical - to these people, the dogs are just moneymakers to them from the beginning.

Other than that, this was a decent film. Was remade by Warners later as Wine, Women, and Horses.

Is this movie about gangsters? No, it's about dogs! (Well, in a manner of speaking.) Eddie plays Buck Turner, a gambling addict who wins and loses large sums of money. Buck goes to a boarding house where he meets his future wife, Marge, who comes from the "right side of the tracks". After they marry, Buck tries to go "straight" with a respectable job, as a night clerk at the Northland Hotel.

Funny scene: The phone switchboard is alight with many calls, and Buck tries to answer them all. He listens quietly to the question of one caller, then responds, "Noooo, sir! You've got to have baggage!" One "customer" repeatedly bullies Buck and incites him into a fight, which gets him fired. Mission accomplished: the bully actually wants Buck to work for his organization, the dog track. Buck is back in the gambling racket… He becomes attached to one racing greyhound in particular: Dark Hazard. He wants to buy him, but his wife puts her foot down. She is not liking his return to gambling at all.

Later, Dark Hazard is injured in a race, and his owner wants to put him down. Buck saves his life by buying him for $25, and nursing him back to health. All the while, Buck and Marge have been going through many ups and downs in their marriage. Who will Buck side with, his wife or his dog? In 2017, an easy answer for most men, but this was a different era.

As an aside, I really love these 1930s Warner Brothers movies where they show the actor and the character name during the opening credits, so the audiences can connect the two. In this flick, they even gave credit to the starring dog. War Cry is the thespian who portrayed Dark Hazard.

Without good looks or commanding stature, Edward G. Robinson fashioned a long, impressive career out of sheer talent. Curiously enough, he was versatile where his limitations would seem to have worked against his being convincing in a wide variety of roles. During the 1930s, in particular, he often played an "off-center" character, a man with a fractured psyche who, despite good intentions and some sensitivity toward the feelings of others, was too emotionally flawed to find security or happiness.

Such a character was Jim Turner in this film, and, as usual, Robinson's skillful portrayal generates our sympathy for someone barely deserving of it. Too weak to abandon the seedy, sleazy world of small-time gambling, he loses - not once, but twice - the love and forgiveness of a devoted wife, capably played by Genevieve Tobin. Glenda Farrell, as a gold-digging good time gal, and Sidney Toler, playing a shady operator involved in "deals," are also effective.

The picture covers a considerable period of time in only 72 minutes, being composed of a multitude of short scenes. Good and bad: more extensive character motivation would have helped; but there is nary a dull moment.

Most people don't know that this picture exists. What a shame.