What Price Vengeance

Back in the 1930s, Lyle Talbot was a well respected actor who appeared as a leading man in quite a few B-movies. Sadly, later in life he had the distinction of appearing in Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space"! Talk about a decline in his marketability! "What Price Vengeance" is from the period where Talbot was about at his most famous and in demand. The overall results are okay, but Talbot's performance is quite nice.

Tom (Talbot) is a cop and a crack shot. However, when a group of bank robbers strike, Tom freezes...and as a result, someone he cared about is hurt...and Tom quits the police force. Soon he ties up with some of the same bandits who committed the robbery...and the results are pretty much what I expected...and you probably will as well!

The plot is a bit cliched because it's been used to death. So there aren't a lot of surprises in this one...but it is entertaining. Not brilliant but not bad....and watchable.

By the way, in one scene early in the film, little Sandy (who appears to be about 8) is outside shooting a rifle with no adult supervision. My, how times have changed!!

Motorcycle cop Lyle Talbot is in pursuit of fleeing criminals. He refuses to shoot and his nephew is blinded. Public opinion says that a cop afraid to use his gun has no business being on the force, and the embittered Talbot agrees. Despite the urging of girlfriend Wendy Barrie, he slides pretty quickly, turning criminal and making connections with the gang of criminals run by Marc Lawrence.

It's an exciting little film with a professional cast and crew, helmed by comedy veteran Del Henderson, who inserts a few nice comedy touches. How it came to be made is a bit of a story.

For decades, British law decreed that any movie theater's program had to include a proportion of British product. This was meant to promote the British film industry. It promoted it all right, producing a goodly number of films shot cheaply, often of such poor quality that they were called "quota quickies." With guaranteed rentals throughout the United Kingdom, they didn't have to be good, and were often dire.

The definition of what constituted a British film was that it had to contain a certain proportion of British Commonwealth personnel in its making. As a result, English producer Kenneth J. Bishop cut a deal with Hollywood's Columbia. In return for financing and Columbia's up-and-coming stars, he produced movies in British Columbia that would satisfy the Quota Quickie law, giving Columbia better access to the British market. And so this movie was directed by a Canadian, written by Australian J.P. McGowan, and had as its leading lady English Miss Barrie... and several of the minor players and crew members also qualified.

Because of Columbia's backing, this turned into a decent if unexceptional B product.... and the foundation of British Columbia's still active production facilities.

This film was part of the British Quota Law that existed in the 1930's that basically said in order for films produced in the U.S. by U.S. producers and companies to be shown in Great Britain or any of the colonies, a certain number of films shot somewhere in the British Empire, with the majority of the cast and crew British subjects, had to be shown in the U.S.A. This posed no problems for the major studios who either had production facilities in England or working agreements with the major British producers, but Columbia had neither. In order to comply with the British Quota, so Columbia films could be shown in England and its far-flung outposts, Columbia entered into an agreement with Commonwealth Studios, headed by Canadian-producer Kenneth J. Bishop, in Willows Park, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to finance and shoot films there for distribution through Columbia's film exchanges. Most of these films starred imported Columbia contract players such as Rita Hayworth, Charles Quigley, Rosalind Keith, Charles Starrett and others, but the vast majority of cast and crew was made up of subjects of the Crown. As such, there were a couple of dozen B-features or westerns shot in Canada with the cast filled with names such as Finis Barton, Robert Rideout, Arthur Kerr, Reginald Hincks, Edgar Edwards, others, directed or written by people such as Del Lord (Canadian-born), J. P. McGowan (Australian-born) or Kenneth/Kenne Duncan (Canadian born). There were a couple of Charles Starrett westerns filmed there and the only American citizens on either side of the camera were Starrett and his double/stunt man Ted Mapes. "Vengeance, 1937" (Canada title) and "What Price Vengeance?,1937" (U.S. title), and there is no re-issue title in 1937 in spite of some source that thinks so (but some uninformed sources also show re-issue titles as being used in the same year the film was originally released, which may have happened only twice in the history of films), has "Dynamite" Hogan as a young policeman who is a crack pistol shot on the firing range, but lets some bank robbers get away because he hasn't the nerve to fire at human targets. Following a fake resignation from the force, he poses as a crook and gets himself accepted as a member of the gang. Before long, with time out for romancing Polly Moore, he soon engages the entire mob in a gun battle. - Written by Les Adams