The Crusader

How can you go wrong spending 60 some odd minutes with the likes of Ned Sparks, Lew Cody, Marceline Day, and the empress of this type of early 30s film, Evelyn Brent? Make no mistake, this is a talking talkie, with very little active action (save Brent parking her DeSoto and tracking through brush to the secret entrance), but you won't notice. The dialogue crackles by, delivered with relish by every actor in the picture. You know what happens when the District Attorney decides he's going to do some house cleaning? Well, eventually, this big plan hits too close to his own home. Naturally, Our Miss Brent has a past. This seems to be of major importance to some, but typically, Brent hardly seems to raise an eyebrow of concern, yet goes through the motions for the sake of her husband, and her husband's randy sister, Marceline Day in a blonde wig and looking so thin she would surely win roles on many of today's popular television shows. The cast is having a swell time, with Walter Byron, Arthur Hoyt, and especially Ned Sparks delivering the goods. It is especially nice to watch the great Lew Cody looking and playing so well. Marceline Day gets a chance to be rather rotten and haughty before diving into more typical simpering Day territory, the difference here is that she asked for it this time! And who's gonna save her? Evelyn Brent is forced to step back into her past, which she wears like a gorgeous beaded gown, and she takes the bulls by their horns. Don't stand in this woman's way! [Brent's wardrobe is especially good in this one, too.] I hope you can find a copy of this gem, we saw a rare screening up at the annual Bay City/Saginaw show, and it was an audience favorite.

Fascinating little pre-Coder about the law and hypocrisy as seen by the crusader, a district attorney (H.B. Warner) who is hard as nails where the law is concerned.

The story opens with the execution of the woman who killed a man while "defending her honor." The DA points points out that the woman was a tramp but in any case murder is murder. But a nosy reporter (Ned Sparks) digs up some info on the DA's wife (Evelyn Brent) and her past as a speakeasy hostess in New York.

Into the mix comes the DA's sister (Marceline Day) who is dating a stranger. But both Brent and Sparks recognize him as a gangster from New York. At a local club run by Lew Cody (a former boyfriend of Brent's) the gangster brings the naive sister and attacks her in a private dining room. The irony here is that the sister kills a man while defending her honor. Both Brent and Cody try to claim responsibility for the murder, but Warner isn't as dumb as everyone thinks.

Solid early talkie with good performances by all involved. Warner, Brent, and Sparks are standouts.

H. B. Warner is the District Attorney of a city. He's married to Evelyn Brent, and has a sister, Marceline Day. He's under a lot of pressure, because he goes after well-connected crooks, while leaving law-abiding innkeepers like Lew Cody alone. So what if people drink at his place? He's not selling it to them. What he doesn't know is that back in New York, his wife was Cody's girl friend when he was a bootlegger, and that his sister is seeing Walter Byron, who had been one of Cody's associates, and looks to profit off his friendship with Day.

Sounds like the family has a taste for slumming. There's a bit of clumsiness in setting up the relationships. Cody is clearly a fellow who intends to lead the straight and narrow, and helps a b-girl get out of town and back to her family. Warner and Miss Brent are clearly very happy with each other, in a well-directed scene in which he comes home and finds she's been waiting up for her. And Miss Day shoots Byron when he tries to rape her in a private room in Cody's place. He has her hustled home and tells muckrucking reporter Ned Sparks that he killed Byron.

It turns into a very nicely told and performed movie under the direction of Frank Strayer. It makes the point that people can reform, but that some have no interest in changing. Sparks gives a marvelous performer as someone who's so intent on a good story that he doesn't care what actually happened, and Lew Cody gives an actually amiable performance.

A scarce but typical "newspaper drama" so common in the early 1930s. If you can find it, watch it (if you can bare it) just for the sake of finding a rare film. I personally found this movie to be painfully boring. It is terribly uneven, and at times I just lost total interest. While it did have adequate performances by Lew Cody, Evelyn Brent, H.B. Warner and Ned Sparks, not even they could save this creaky, dismal crime drama from being one of the less appealing of the early talkie pre-code's. If you want to see a real good newspaper drama, make sure to be on the lookout for Turner Classic Movies to air the wonderful FIVE STAR FINAL with Edward G. Robinson. It's on from time to time and you won't be disappointed.