Painted Faces

This film essentially begins with a vaudeville couple named "Buddy Barton" (Barton Hepburn) and his female partner "Babe Barnes" (Dorothy Gulliver) arriving at a theater to perform a number on stage. At first, they are quite pleased to have garnered a chance to perform at the theater, but when Buddy learns that a man named "Roderick" (Lester Cole) is also performing, his mood quickly changes to one of anger. As it so happens, Buddy is in love with Babe, and he harbors a deep animosity toward Roderick for trying to win Babe's affections. And this information becomes of paramount importance when Buddy is found with a gun in his hand while standing over Roderick's dead body. Needless to say, he is arrested on the spot and not long afterward a jury is formed to hear the case against him. Yet even though the evidence is quite compelling, one lone juror named "Hermann" (Joe E. Brown) refuses to vote to convict in spite of all of the other jurors imploring him to do so--and the longer he continues to hold out the more frustrated they become. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this is one of those films that might only resonate with viewers who really enjoy old-time movies as this clearly requires some allowances to be made for both the picture and audio quality issues. In addition to that, it should also be noted that Joe E. Brown was required to maintain interest by behaving as a clown and performing various stunts and tricks during jury deliberations simply to maintain viewer interest long enough to get to the rather surprising twist at the end. That being said, although this film is quite dated, I suppose it was worth the time spent to watch it, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

I'm amazed that a previous reviewer found the sound recording of poor quality. I thought the sound recording was exceptionally good. There was no noise at all on the track and every word came across not only clearly and distinctly but with just as much recording precision as you would expect of any movie made before 1950! But it's certainly right to compare this movie with "Twelve Angry Men". I thought "Painted Faces" came out well ahead. It was brilliantly acted by Brown in an extremely difficult role. If you see the movie twice, you'll know what I mean. The actor actually signals the plot. But I didn't pick it up the first time either. Now that is ACTING! Some reviewers though he overdid the accent, but I found it quite convincing. And what a powerful plot it is! And I thought Albert S. Rogell's directorial work was absolutely brilliant. As the cover notes on the excellent Alpha DVD tell us, Rogell directs this movie with a naturalistic, overlapping style of dialogue that prefigures later works by Hawks and Altman. I haven't praised the other actors yet. ALL are brilliant. And Brown himself gives the performance of his life!

"Painted Faces" is a film best enjoyed by someone who is willing to cut the film a lot of slack. It's a bit old fashioned and dated...plus the story has many portions that are tough to believe. But, it also is entertaining and worth seeing.

When the film begins, there is a murder and a young singer is found with the murder weapon...standing over the body. While it looks like an open and shut case, most of the film takes place in the jury room...where one lone holdout, Hermann (Joe E. Brown) refuses to vote guilty. Why? What secret insight does he have in the case?

This film is in many ways like the classic "12 Angry Men"...though made almost three decades earlier. It might just be the first lone holdout juror film--a familiar theme in some films of the 30s, 40s and 50s...as well as TV shows such as "The Odd Couple" and "All in the Family". But it's also quite strange---especially in having Brown speaking with an odd Dutch accent (IMDB says Scandinavian but in the film one of the jurors refers to him as Dutch). It also was a rare film in that you see Brown perform a lot of acrobatics he learned when he traveled with the circus in his pre-Hollywood days.As for the ending...it's really tough to believe and strange. What also is strange is that despite Brown in the lead, it's NOT a comedy! Odd but worth your time.

Think it deserves 7.3 stars. The plot wastes no time setting up the problem... deciding the fate of a man accused of murder. I give it credit for it's interesting plot twist and problems. Joe Brown does a decent job acting and also some amusing clown acrobatics. If you like old movies and keep in mind this was one of the first talkies, made in 1929, this is a good one. The story does go weak and too long in the middle. I didn't like the adopted daughter, but people were different 80+ years ago. If you liked Sidney Lumet's Twelve Angry Men, you might like this similar movie plot done 28 years before. (The sound quality was perfectly fine and understandable on the DVD I got from the library).

I love this great example of early Joe E. Brown. He delivers a great performance in a role that is more dramatic than most of his work. A brilliant comic, he shows his chops as a good serious actor here. Watching it, I am amazed that it's from 1929. It seems to pace much more like a 40s film noir or modern romantic comedy. And the plot is more robust than many of the earlier talkies. It keeps you entertained and doesn't bog down or plod. The scenery and props works is excellent as well. The writers do a great job of telling a compelling story and the circus atmosphere is interesting and captivating. All in all, it was a very decent movie for it's time.

It's maybe not one of Brown's funniest movies or even one of his best. But I think it's an important movie in his career and likely one that was instrumental in propelling him to stardom. I gave it a solid 7.