The Ruling Voice

This is a super-corny, super-stupid story but just go with it - it's fabulous fun.....well, if like me, you like a cheesy unimaginative but fast-paced 1931 gangsterish drama that is.

Gangsterish? Organised crime crime is the central tenet of this but we don't have Tommy gun totting low lifes. Walter Huston's gang boss operates from a big fancy art-deco office, he has a board of directors and calls and minutes board meetings - the analogy of organised crime to big business whilst not being particularly subtle is strikingly put across.

What perhaps doesn't quite happen is any empathy with Walter Huston's character. As always he's fantastic bringing his unique zealous sincerity and honesty even to an agent of insidious evil. He's just a bit too nice, there's too much contradiction here to make him believable: he's the most loving father in the world and yet also deliberately responsible for dozens of babies starving to death.

I don't think we're meant to examine this that deeply. It's just a good old fashioned mellow melodrama. The story doesn't need to make too much sense, the characters don't need to be authentic or memorable and the direction doesn't need to dazzle. It's never going to win any awards but it's got three things going for it. 1) Walter Huston as always being brilliant, even in a bit of a naff role, 2) Loretta Young as always looking impossibly beautiful, 3) it's just so 1931........if someone asked you what was 1931/32 like in an American city, you'd simply show them this.

This is a very well-acted suspense/message film that holds you in its grip the entire way. Other reviews have described the plot so I won't go into that here. The other reviewers seemed to want more violent action in the film, but the film wasn't intended to be an action film but rather make you understand how the characters feel and you can do that through words. I really enjoyed this and was very moved by all of the main characters. I found the acting of everyone gripping and believable and there are a number of twists and turns that make you unsure of how it will end. A wonderful film that I think most Walter Huston fans will especially enjoy although Doris Kenyon also gives a fine performance as well as do the entire cast.

As he is in "Night Court," Walter Huston is superb in this harsh early mob story. Some might think his change of heart over daughter Loretta Young sentimental but not I. It is psychologically plausible and doesn't sell out the rough nature of the story. Not much ends happily, though the path for Young and David Manners -- a highly improbable couple -- does clear.

Huston is probably best known for "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." To me, he is first and foremost the fine American businessman in the lovely "Dodsworth." He was very convincing in these earlier unsympathetic roles, though. This movie pulls no punches and has some scary scenes. It doesn't seem at all dated. It could have been made 70 years later -- but teenagers wouldn't be interested so it wouldn't have been.

In The Ruling Voice, Walter Huston gets to play both of his specialties: a father and a charming villain. I've seen 26 of his movies, and in almost all of them he's played a dad! He's the head of a racketeering organization, but when he reveals his occupation to his innocent daughter, Loretta Young, she's ashamed and afraid of him. Oh, the hurt on Walter Huston's brow! He's such a powerful actor; he's credited as the man who started the racketeering business and has ordered terrible things to the opposition, but when Loretta hurts his feelings, he looks so sad and tender, it makes you want to cry.

Loretta is engaged to David Manners, whose character is named Dick Cheney, which provides a chuckle whenever he's mentioned. Besides that character's name, there's nothing funny about this movie. It's a family drama, with Walter trying to repair his relationship with his daughter at the heart of it. Naturally, I'm on Walter's side. Why can't Loretta respect her father's hard work and realize he loves her more than anything else in the world? Doesn't she know how charming and handsome he is, and how deeply she can hurt him?

Doris Kenyon appreciates him, and they share a few scenes together that sparkle with conflicting chemistry. "Well, there goes the devil," he quips as he leaves the room, an ironic foresight to a role he'd play ten years later. Walter Huston fans should check this one out; make it a double-feature with Night Court for a thrilling evening.

A potentially interesting entry in Warner Brothers' series of crime dramas is weakened by an improbably wordy script, stagey performances -- Walter Huston, in this early role, seems to have no sense of where the camera is -- and an outright awful performance by Doris Kenyon, who, although fifth-billed, is actually the female lead.

Despite the ethnic types that inhabit the better Warners crime dramas, the Irishmen and Italians, this one seems to be inhabited solely by WASPS who wear impeccable, old fashioned clothing.

On the plus side, Loretta Young is in her luminously beautiful phase, an absolute pleasure to look at, although she isn't given much to do. David Manners is adequate as the juvenile lead and the idea of the story, how honest men can be driven to become criminals, is potentially interesting. But this movie doesn't live up to its potential.