His Greatest Gamble

This is a frustrating film because so much of it is so good and with a simple re-write it could have been an exceptional film. Too bad...as Richard Dix is quite good with the material he's given.

When the film begins, you see a Phillip (Dix) on the run with his daughter, Alice. It seems that he and Alice's mom recently divorced and he took Alice despite a court order. Why is this? Is it because Phillip is a jerk-face? Well, not exactly...and this is one of the problems with the film. Although Alice's mother is god- awful, Phillip is hardly father of the year material--he's a dreamer and gambling addict and hardly would provide a stable home for the kid.

During the course of their wanderings, the pair are discovered by a woman who knows Phillip and what he's done. Impulsively, Phillip ties her up and leaves her...not realizing that in the process he'd accidentally kill the woman. Soon he's captured and imprisoned for murder and Alice is forced to be raised by her wretched mother.

Many years pass and Alice has lost touch with her father and doesn't realize he was sent to prison. But, when the housekeeper comes to prison to tell him how miserable Alice is doing, he is determined to save her and soon escapes (if it was THAT easy you'd think he'd have done it long before!). And, soon he sees Alice is being kept like an invalid...all because her mother is determined to crush her spirit and keep her that way. What's next? See the film.

The best thing going for the film is Dix and his magnificent performance. With just a little smoothing out of the plot, it would have been a terrific picture. As is, it's still worth seeing but difficult to truly love.

A father-love story shaped like a mother-love story, with irresponsible but charming Richard Dix going through some plot implausibilities that would have tried Madelon Claudet or Madame X. As dad to the charming, unaffected Edith Fellows, he accidentally murders an unsympathetic old flame (implausibility #1), is sentenced to 15 years in French prison, easily escapes and travels to America (implausibility #2) and poses as his own brother (implausibility #3) to catch up with his daughter, who's now miserable, doesn't remember him at all (implausibility #4), and has been cowed by her awful mom into being a non-walking invalid (implausibility #5), all the while loving impoverished newspaperman Bruce Cabot. Dix sets everything aright, in ways that are similarly truth-stretching but do carry some emotional resonance, and Erin O-Brien Moore, a major stage star who didn't register a lot on film, is good as the uptight bitch he once married (implausibility #6). Dix is fine, and if the story doesn't make much sense, it's watchable and affecting. Nicely shot, too.

Edith Fellowes runs away from. Her mother to be with her father, Richard Dix. Dix is agreeable, but he's soon broke! No problem! He'll get a job digging a ditch. But ex-wife Erin O'Brien-Moore shows up, he's shipped off to prison for murder, and she takes Miss Fellowes with her. Before they part, Dix extracts a promise from Miss Fellowes to write him every day. She does so for thirteen years. When the letters stop, he escapes from prison and makes his way to where Miss Fellowes has grown into Dorothy Wilson, and is psychosomatically ill from Miss O'Brien-Moore's meddling in her love affair with Bruce Cabot.

Performance are good, camerawork by Ted Tetzlaff is dazzling, but director John S. Robertson can't extract more from this movie than "Laugh and grow well." With Shirley Grey and Leonard Carey.

Up front confession: I don't know how many reviewers fall into the Postwar Baby Boom period . . . And how many are decades younger (wish I was).

I sense some of the negatives on HIS GREATEST GAMBLE are from younger viewers. Because . . . While there are some plot flaws, I find this a terrific film.

I've seen maybe 25 films with Richard Dix -- I doubt he was ever better than he is here. Credible, firm, dedicated, delivers the goofy "world traveler" dialogue brilliantly.

In reviewing more than 10,000 movies over 30 years, I occasionally use the notation "hidden gem". This generally refers to lesser-known films that have been semi-forgotten or that have been rated so-so by sources like Maltin, VideoHound, this one.

Great as in great depiction of a caring father!

Given it's nearly 90 years old, HGG gets a definite hidden gem designation.

In Nice, Phillip Eden (Richard Dix) is a gambler. Bernice Solon is a party girl. Together, they have a girl named Alice. Bernice doesn't want the girl. Phillip bounds Bernice and takes her. However, Bernice is accidentally killed in a gas leak. Phillip is imprisoned for murder. Alice Stebbins (Dorothy Wilson) grows up to be a miserable socialite and believing that she had been abandoned by her father.

At the start, I thought that this could be a fun Paper Moon situation. The story gets more convoluted over time. The plot is bending over backwards to get to a certain situation. The tension is lost. A new actress plays Alice and I don't really care. I wish this was Paper Moon. It is not.