Bad Guy

Bruce Cabot winds up in prison, gets paroled, plays rough as a line man in this MGM programmer.

The direction by Edward Cahn is mostly adequate visually, but weak in terms of line reading -- Virginia Grey, as the girl Cabot and his brother, Edward Norris both want is poor, seemingly more interested in her enunciation than her feelings. It also appears that the human side of the story was so short that they had to cut in half a reel or more of Norris attending a lecture on high voltage, so the audience can be fascinated by images of electricity ladders. Because I saw such things in grade school, I wasn't.

There's a potentially interesting character study of a guy who actually doesn't feel any fear, but the powers-that-be were either incapable of or unwilling to offer such a story. Instead it turns into a straight melodrama, diverting for an hour, but not much more.

That's an Edward L Cahn's film from the thirties, the best period for this director who, in the late fifties and early sixties provided us with another kind of material, something totally different. But this decade - thirties - offered us good surprises with him: EMERGENCY CALL, LAW AND ORDER, BAD GUY, MAIN STREETS AFTER DARK, very exciting gems. This one is very good, and Bruce Cabot's role so riveting, an anti hero as I crave for. Yes, his character is so ambivalent, and some scenes are so daring for this period. It would be so nice if this movie could be more widely knoown. Yes, Edward L Cahn could bring us good stuff, no matter what he did during his late career.

The movies loved rogues in the old days. Whores with hearts of gold (though they couldn't call them that,--whores I mean), con men who were kind to widows and orphans, gangsters who were really robin hoods in fedoras and pin-striped suits. This was especially true in the economic hard times of the Depression. One saw fewer of such films after the war. Nowadays things are quite different, and the formula would seem ridiculously old-fashioned and corny. Maybe the rise of mass education had something to do with it. As people have become more middle class they are increasingly concerned about "respectability". In the days when most people worked with their hands or lived off the land the good bad guy thing was acceptable. But enough sociological musing. In this film the good bad guy is Bruce Cabot, who could play really bad guys quite well also, which gives his character added ambiguity. The setting is New York, the work is power lineman. Cabot is credible in both his good and bad aspects, which makes his nice guy attributes more effective than had his role been played by, say, Don Ameche. Director Eddie Cahn, a master of the short subject, directs this one for speed and beauty. It has plenty of both. The backlot cityscapes are something to see.

Very seldom shown "Bad Guy".... has only 56 votes on imdb so far. Bruce Cabot and Ed Norris are Lucky and Steve, electric linemen. Right from the start, Lucky is complaining about what life has handed him, and how he's ready to take whatever he can from life. When a card game setup goes wrong, Lucky ends up in the slammer, on death row. A couple miracles happen, and before you know it, he's bounced for heroic actions. Before he goes, he has a discussion with the warden about destiny... is everything pre-planned or do we make our own path? Pretty deep for a con-man. But... getting a job after prison isn't easy. Lucky could fall back into his old ways, in spite of getting a second chance. Also in here is Virginia Grey; she had started in films as a ten year old. and was in the awesome film The Women at 22 ! and vaudeville entertainer Cliff Edwards is in here as Hi-Line, fellow electrician. Try to find him playing the ukulele in one of his films -- it's great! This film has pretty good acting and a pretty good story. it's also a documentary on how electricity works and how dangerous it can be; they keep giving safety tips, like don't use wire to fly your kite. (did kids really do that??) always wear your gloves and your climbing strap. stay away from live wires. They spend a LOT of time talking about the high voltage electricity, but it does play a large part of the story. Picture quality is pretty rough... the the picture flashes repeatedly through the film. It's really noticed in the first half, but not so much in the second half. Directed by Ed Cahn... made a bunch of B horror films. It's not bad.

... and forgive me for that review title.

John Lucky Walden (Bruce Cabot) is a lineman working on a power outage at a carnival. Perched high above the ground, he sees the guy who cheated him in a game of cards the night before. After electricity is restored, he asks about the card cheat and finds out where tonight's game is. Lucky shows up and demands his winnings back. Intimidated, the guy returns Lucky's money. But when Lucky demands interest on his money as well, the cheat refuses and Lucky hits him in the head with his wrench. The man dies instantly. One witness to the killing runs, and when the police show up, they arrest Lucky. Lucky tells a completely false version of the crime to the jury, claiming it was self-defense, but he's convicted of murder anyway and sentenced to death.

Before the execution date, Lucky's brother Mike finds the witness who ran. Afraid that Lucky knows enough to implicate him in a bank robbery, the witness lies and confirms Lucky's version of events. The governor has enough reason to doubt that this was deliberate murder and commutes Lucky's sentence to life. Later, after committing an act of extreme bravery, Lucky is paroled.

Back on the outside, again working as a lineman at a power company, Lucky continues his reckless ways of wanting what he wants when he wants it, regardless of the consequences to his family and friends. Complications ensue.

The actual plot didn't quite make it to an hour, so about 5-10 minutes of a scene of the linemen attending a lecture on low and high frequency power with some imagery of electricity ladders is added. None of this has anything to do with the story.

Bruce Cabot was convincing as Lucky, a guy who was maybe not as bad as he was unlucky. He's definitely not living the life of Tom Powers of Public Enemy, and he wouldn't have gotten the death penalty for what happened to that gambler, not even in 1937, considering it was an impulsive act that killed the guy. He would have likely gotten a verdict of manslaughter. But then we'd have no story. The supporting players were forgettable but not embarrassing.

I 'm pretty sure I saw Robert Young in an uncredited role with just one line as his voice is pretty distinctive. That would have been odd, though, since Robert Young had been playing lead roles since 1931 or at least played in strong support.