I Promise to Pay

In the 1930s if you wanted an exciting drama that exposed a social ill, you thought of Warner Brothers. Columbia tried its hand at several, but usually they turned into routine programmers, clearly derivative and often too polite to show the grime. This movie, aimed at the loan sharks, makes a good effort at discussing the problem centering around the usual facile performance of Chester Morris, giving a little-guy performance that slides between smart-alec humor and straightforward, believable emotion. Thomas Mitchell moves through his small but key role with his typical excellence. Leo Carillo is little short of great as the head of the loan sharking syndicate. Marc Lawrence also gets a terrifying few moments as he tries to kidnap a child.

For the first forty-five minutes I PROMISE TO PAY shifts uneasily between domestic comedy and office oppression. While some of this is necessary to flesh out the story, it goes on too long. It may take the casual movie-goer an effort to sit still until the movie takes off; even then the good part lasts only twenty minutes until it moves back into workaday movie-making. Even so, that's far more than most.

Chester Morris, low paid office guy with a cheap flat in the city, a wife and two kids, wants a vacation to escape the worst heat in years. When he signs on the dotted line with a shady loan outfit, he soon finds that he has said "I PROMISE TO PAY" far more than he can afford. Will Chester and his family escape his debt to Leo Carillo's new-style, can't miss racket?

Despite a script that seems downright naive in spots, probably because of our exposure to numerous loan sharks in the movies, this a rather good programmer, that answers the question posed by many a Boston Blackie movie -- Is it possible for Chester Morris to put in a good performance? In this one, Morris' customary cockiness is only an aspect of his character (rather than his raison d'etre), and is mostly subordinated in his depiction of a decent but quietly desperate guy in a dead-end job who just wants to give his wife and kids a week in the country. The depiction of Morris' disintegrating life is contrasted, in best 30s fashion, against the over-the-top vulgarity of Carillo's mob-fueled wealth. Eventually, because movies like this had to have a happy ending in the 30s, the plot spins into a d.a. vs. mobsters vs. witnesses that won't talk that's resolved in favor of law and order. But until that point is reached, this movie is better than most of that era in showing the trials and tribulations of the lower middle class, and how a family copes with slowly creeping financial disaster.

Well worth seeing, both as a decent Warner's style crime drama, and a depiction of the 30s socially conscious mindset.

Chester Morris started as a teenager in the silent films, and by the 1940s had the role of "Boston Blackie" locked up. This film "I Promise to Pay" was a couple years before he got the Boston Blackie gig. The film opens by showing us how hot the city is, and Morris is Eddie Lang, who is short on money for his wife and kid. Keep an eye out for Thomas Mitchell, the only other big name in here that I recognize - he was in about half the movies made in the 1930s, usually the father or the president of the company. In this one, he plays the D.A. Leo Carillo is the big mob boss "Farra" on the take, squeezing folks for money when they take out loans, and of course, our hero Lang becomes one of his "customers". Lang and his family go off on vacation to a lodge on a lake, but as of today, the filming locations aren't listed - too bad. Pretty good, for a Columbia Pictures shortie, at only 68 minutes. It's almost like a long episode of Dragnet. Good way to kill an hour.

This starts with a heat wave. Office worker Eddie Lang (Chester Morris) needs $50 to take his family on a vacation. His boss refuses to give him an advance. He borrows from ruthless loan shark Richard Farra (Leo Carrillo) without realizing it. The interest rate field is left blank. He expected a bonus which never comes. Soon he's falling behind on the payments.

This is like a public service movie. It's a movie of the week. It's a B-movie. Eddie is way clueless and way too confident for too long. I get the idea of this character as representative of the everyman audience. Maybe people were more gullible back then. It just seems that he's too clueless.

I think I watched this film for Helen Mack. I had just seen her in "Girls of the Road" and her performance stood out in that mediocre attempt. What struck me was the chemistry between her and her co-star, Chester Morris. Their portrayal of a married couple still in love after eight years was so genuine I felt drawn in to their lives, felt their misery and disappointments, and sympathized with the gut wrenching decisions they had to make on a daily basis regarding the basic necessities of life. Yet in spite of their hard lives, or perhaps because of them, they stayed devoted to each other and very much connected. Whenever they were on screen the chemistry between them was unmistakable. They made me believe they really loved each other and that's what I found unusual. The rest of the movie is OK. Leo Carillo is a standout as the loan shark but the plot follows a more or less predictable path to a predictable ending. If it weren't for the scenes with Mack and Morris it would be entirely forgettable.