Lucky Devils

The first five minutes of this film will quickly convince you that this is definitely a "Pre-Code" movie--a film so named because it was made just before the Hays Production Code was fully enforced--putting a stop to excessive violence, sexuality and "adult themes". Just a year later, a film as amazingly violent as this one never would have been allowed. That's because this portion of the movie features a bank robbery scene that is at least as violent as the ones in BONNIE AND CLYDE--which was made over three decades later. Blood is flying, customers are being splattered and hundreds of bullets fly. This is not the only extremely violent moment in the film, as later you see a man fall into a burning building and it's very shocking indeed.

The film is not really about bank robberies, though, but is about the rough and dangerous world of the movie stuntman. In the 1920s, some Hollywood producers were pretty cavalier about risking the lives of their stunt men, though how unnecessarily lives are tossed away in this film seems silly--but also very entertaining.

The main character in this film is William Boyd (later known as "Hopalong Cassidy") and once he marries, his new bride is convinced he'll be killed. Judging by the movie so far, this isn't surprising! I could tell you more about the plot but don't want to ruin it. The film is very exciting to watch and the violence is shocking but also intriguing because it was so extreme. A good film but certainly not an intellectual or deep film.

PS--Look carefully at the beginning and you'll see a White guy in black face--something that's shocking when seen today.

This is one of the most energetic of the non-Hoppy entries in Boyd's film resume. Here he's Skipper Clark, the nominal head of a group of Hollywood stunt men called, what else, THE LUCKY DEVILS... a bunch of hard drinking, womanizing guys who are full of superstitions. The #1 rule is a married guy can't be a stunt man, which is proven by the death of one of the newly married guys. Enter a beautiful-yet- despondent Dorothy Wilson, easily the best performer in the movie, who threatens the Devil's dynamic. I don't want to give away the plot, but the real interest is the behind the scenes look at early sound movie making. There's several extensive scenes (including a great opener) involving stunt work... many outdoors (along with some obvious rear projection stuff). Lots of talk about safety but you won't see anyone practicing it. Bruce Cabot's seen here as a stunt man, but it he's wallpaper, seemingly saving his voice for his part in then-in-production KING KONG... Creighton (Lon Jr.) Chaney looks 20 years younger than he would just 8 years later in THE WOLF MAN. Enjoy it and add up the felonies Boyd commits in the last 5 minutes of the movie...

... before he left modern dress roles forever and became Hopalong Cassidy for the long term.

The film starts with an extremely violent bank robbing scene. Men armed with automatic weapons storm the bank from the doors and the glass ceiling in broad daylight. Anybody, customer or employee, who even looks the wrong way gets filled full of lead. An operator trying to reach the police is punched in the face and is thrown down the stairs. Then the police arrive and a director yells "CUT". You've been watching stuntmen do their stuff including the telephone operator! Have I got your attention?

The rest of the film is about Hollywood stuntmen and the fact that they are "lucky devils" to be alive at the end of each work day. There was no Osha or workman's comp, or class action lawsuits in 1932. You die in a stunt, too bad for you. But while you are alive the pay is good, and the more dangerous the stunt the better the pay.

So obviously some superstitions grow up around such men who are always in danger. If a bottle breaks, then some stuntman is going to "get it". And by "It" I don't mean an Academy award. And there is the slogan of the business that "A good stuntman makes a bad husband and a good husband makes a bad stuntman". And if a good husband becomes a bad enough stuntman that he dies on the job, the wife is left broke. So Boyd's character is never going to get the marriage bug. But then he meets her - a starving unemployed girl he saves from suicide, and his motto goes down the tubes. How will this work out? Watch and find out.

This is not your typical precode. There is no extra or premarital sex going on. The things in this film that the code would stomp out in 1934 is all of the violence and dangerous stunts and probably even the suicide attempt by the jobless desperate starving girl. And then there is a police chase scene in which the police are outsmarted. That would be gone during the production code era too.

Things to look out for? For one, note that the script writer is a woman, sitting right next to the director on the set, editing on the fly. Ask Frances Marion how that career worked out for women after about 1935 when the suits began to realize they had made it through the talkies and the worst of the depression and could jettison women in important jobs behind the camera. Also, look out for a very young Lon Chaney Jr. among the stuntmen almost a decade before he becomes The Wolfman.

Highly recommended.

A fun romp, Starring William Boyd, (best known as Hopalong Cassidy)about a group of Hollywood stunt men. The story by Bob Rose and Casey Robinson, two of the top stunt men of the era, follows the men through the up and downs of the stunt world in early films. Complete with a rousing song,sung several times in the film, about the trials and tribulations of the Hollywood stunt man, not unlike the "Fall Guy" theme. You get a glimpse of "state of the art" stunts of that time and it ends with William Boyd using all of his "stunt" skills to race from Big Bear back to Hollywood to make the birth of his child. It's fun, and gives a good look at old Hollywood as it plays as the backdrop for the story. Just a look at the size of the palm trees lets you know just how long ago this took place. Enjoy!

An early film glorifying the role of stuntmen in early Hollywood, characterizing them as brave daredevils who look at the possibility of dying with a smile and great stoicism. There are some scenes here that are indeed quite hazardous, including falls down stairs, swinging over to a burning building, boating down some seriously churning whitewater rapids, and various car crashes. They don't rise to the level of the best stuntwork from the period, but the ones towards the end are at least worth checking out, if you're getting bored during the rather dull middle part of this film.

In 'Stunt: The Story of the Great Movie Stunt Men' (1974), John Baxter lists 55 deaths in California film productions over the years 1925-30, and fans of old films have undoubtedly come across many a scene that looked truly harrowing to make. It's just interesting to me that no one questioned the ethics of filmmakers to put people at such risk, even if the stuntmen involved were willing, and it's certainly not questioned here. Instead, this comes across as a propaganda piece for Hollywood, and annoyingly, it's women who take the blame for accidents involving stuntmen more than once. Relationships should be avoided because they make stuntmen lose their edge, you see, and it's "bad luck" to have one's wife on the set. In one scene, a woman literally distracts her husband while he's trying to perform a dangerous stunt, causing him to fail and another man to die.

The other issue is the flimsy story draped around the stunts. A bottle breaking is an omen for a stuntman dying, and sure enough, it happens. A newcomer is initiated by pouring water through a funnel and down his pants, which humorously enough I had just seen in another film, 'The First Auto' (1927). A woman attempts suicide but after being saved by a couple of guys, is all smiles with them shortly thereafter. A love triangle develops but there are no hard feelings, just smiles. The film wants to make us feel there is danger all around - in the stunts, the pregnant woman not getting proper medical care, and there not being other work because of the Depression - but tonally it needed to be darker to accomplish this. It's worth a look, but guard your expectations.