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.

Compulsive gambler Edward G. Robinson marries nice girl Genevieve Tobin and tries to settle down. His gambling and irresponsibility causes problems between them. Soon he's spending time with ex-girlfriend Glenda Farrell and his wife leaves him. Eventually he buys an injured racing dog named Dark Hazard and nurses him back to health, planning to make a winner out of him.

Fine role for Edward G. Robinson with a solid cast backing him up. Glenda Farrell is always enjoyable. Genevieve Tobin has the thankless role of the suffering wife. Sidney Toler plays the guy who gets Robinson back into gambling. Was remade just a few years later as Wine, Women, and Horses starring Barton MacLane and Ann Sheridan. This is the better version of the two but that one's not bad. Both are pretty simple programmers.

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.

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.

There's a steak of subversive humour running through this. The novel on which this is based is a very serious examination of gambling addiction but this film makes this a jolly, fun adventure. One example is the background music being played as Edward G's marriage starts to crumble: Honeymoon Hotel from FOOTLIGHT PARADE!

Edward G cited this as one of his least favourite pictures. Being a serious actor and a fan of the author (who also wrote LITTLE CAESAR.....and incidentally owned the dog in this movie) he didn't appreciate the frivolous approach which was taken. For the viewer however this makes it a surprisingly enjoyable and entertaining film.

His character has a serious problem, his gambling looks like it's going to destroy his life but that's not what we get. He doesn't care. At one point he wins $20,000, moments later he's broke, having to borrow $5 to get him home. When he meets gorgeous middle-class Genevieve Tobin he tries to mend his ways but the lure of the bet and the lure of his on-off girlfriend, played perfectly by a ridiculously sexy Glenda Farrell is just too much. He prefers fun to respectability.

Films from this period, and certainly those which followed after the Hays code was properly implemented often had a moral message. This has the opposite. Preachiness is swapped for entertainment. It feels like it shouldn't work but it does - it shouldn't be but it's a lovely warm enjoyable hour an a half. It was after all made in the middle of The Depression so maybe they just wanted to cheer everyone up.

If there is any lesson this teaches us, it's that if you've got a gambling problem, don't worry about it because you're likely to end up having lots and lots of sex with Glenda Farrell.