Escape by Night

In the bleak light of 1937, this little gem was a complete Ray of Sunshine. All the hooks, all the cliches about "innate goodness" of man are used here and work marvelously.

When the film begins, a poor sap, Nick (William Hall) accidentally gets involved with a gang of crooks and folks think he's one of them. Soon he and the Regan gang are on the lam and they come up with a great idea---to hide out at a humble farm in the country. There something unusual happens...the crooks all come to love the simple country life and want to give up their wicked ways. Plus Nick and Jo (Steffi Duna) find love with two locals. The problem is that the leader of the gang, Capper Regan (Dean Jagger) isn't about to let any of them just retire.

This is a bad film in some ways. Steffi Duna can barely speak English and practically needed subtitles. Additionally, the finale is a bit silly. But, most importantly, I was able to set all that aside and enjoy the picture even if it was just a cheap B. Not bad overall and rather fun.

For all those interested this title is available on DVD..though it doesn't say it in the IMDb home page for the picture. It is available on the Platnium disc release called "Mobster Movies". Also included on the disc is Gangster's Boy (1938) starring Jackie Cooper, Gang Bullets (1938) starring Anne Nagel and Morgan Wallace, also The Racketeer (1930) starring Carol Lombard and RObert Armstrong. I love these cheap four or more movie disc of films of yesteryear. If you can find it and it is only a few bucks, pick it up, especially if you collect the classics of the golden era. Platnium disc is also famous for their other classic film collections. Including Westerns, classic TV, film noir, drama and comedies.

This little show barely qualifies as even a "B" picture, but I found it quite enjoyable, and parts of it certainly rose above the mundane. It was fun to see William Hall in a rare leading role, as well as pretty Anne Nagel who looked like one of the Young sisters. Charles Waldron (Gen. Sternwood in The Big Sleep) has a role as a blind man who "sees" more than many of the sighted characters, and his cultured voice is always a pleasure to hear. Added to that you have good if predictable character roles for Ward Bond, Murray Alper and the seldom-seen Stefi Duna, with a fine turn by Dean Jagger (pre-bald days) as a really mean gangster. Since it's only a hair longer than one hour, give it a try...if you're not expecting a classic, you might very well enjoy yourself.

Escape By Night is a B film from a B picture studio Republic which may have lost something in the editing. I'd hate to think that something this bad could have been made deliberately.

Young William Hall being brought up as he was in small town Pennsylvania has been taught to go to a lady in distress which he does on his first day in the big city when gangster's moll Steffi Duna is being accosted. For his efforts Hall gets what they call in movies 'a flesh wound' and gets treated by the local mob doctor. Later on he takes it on the lam with the mob, why is still beyond me because he certainly hasn't done anything wrong.

In the getaway however mob leader Dean Jagger with a full head of hair kills a cop and he splits from the rest of the gang. So Hall, Duna, and henchmen Murray Alper and Ward Bond go into the country on their own.

A flat tire has them winding up at a farm owned by blind Charles Waldron and his daughter Anne Nagel and of course their German Shepherd guide dog, a relative no doubt of Rin Tin Tin. Nagel gives Hall reason enough to hang around. But Duna, Alper, and Bond actually take to country life and the relative peace and quiet and semi-seclusion from the law.

Of course it all catches up with them as it always does in these films. The cast does their best, but with a weak script and some impossible plot situations Escape By Night is not the best thing that ever came from Republic.

Maybe after this one, Herbert J. Yates decided to concentrate on westerns.