Framed

Creaky, but Sometimes Clever, this Early Talkie was Headlined by Evelyn Brent, Hardly a Household Name. But Her Acting Ability, Especially Making the Transition from the Silents, is Obvious and She Shines in this Male Oriented Gangster Film.

Regis Toomey, in an Early Role, is Underused and Bland, but as Brent Carries the Film it Plods Along with the Expected Datedness that Plagued the Era from 1927-to about 1933. Hollywood's Transition from Silents to Talkies was, Like All Births, Painful at Times.

This One Fares Pretty Good, but Cannot Escapes the Confines of its Playdate. Worth a Watch to See the Unknown Brent and as a Bridge Roughly Traveled as Filmdom was Finding its Feet with New Technology. The Opening and Closing are Stylistic and Connected, the Middle Meanders a bit, but Manages to be Entertaining Enough to Recommend.

Note...There is very little Pre-Code Inclusions worth noting and the Film would have passed the Censors with no problem.

Brutishly interrogated by seven bullying detectives, beautiful Evelyn Brent (as Rose Manning) claims she knows nothing about a recent cop killing. Informed her racketeering father was also shot to death during the incident, Ms. Brent vows revenge against police inspector William Holden (as "Butch" McArthur) and the other "coppers" responsible. Five years later, Brent runs a nightclub casino popular with underworld types. Brent attracts many men, ranging from manicured bootlegger Ralf Harolde (as Chuck Gaines) to innocent youngish Regis Toomey (as Jimmy). The latter man has a secret which tests Brent's resolve...

This run-of-the-mill melodrama is enjoyably for the dramatics and great beauty provided by Brent. She proved to be as good in "all-talking" pictures as she was in "silent" movies, but the parts she received were getting worse. Her "Framed" role calls for obvious melodramatics, but Brent manages to get in some subtle moments. William Holden is not the 1950s super-star. Having a lot of fun with their characters are villainous Mr. Harolde and henchman Maurice Black (as "Bing" Murdock). The former keeps his fingernails clean; the latter helps Brent and director George Archainbaud make the apartment confrontation a highlight.

***** Framed (3/16/30) George Archainbaud ~ Evelyn Brent, Regis Toomey, Ralf Harolde, William Holden

It's yet another revenge drama, and like "Paid", the woman marries the son of the man she holds responsible for killing her father (as opposed to the guy who sent Crawford up the river). The opening is cops surrounding Brent interrogating her about a cop killing. She refuses to talk, including when she's presented with a police lineup that includes the killer.

Five years later, Brent works as a "hostess" at the casino run by Ralf Harolde. She's his mistress, but every night Toomey comes and grins blandly as she works the crowd. Seriously, there is way more chemistry between Brent and Harolde. Once Brent discovers Toomey is the son of the man who killed her father, she marries him. Do you know, I saw this movie a week ago and I can't remember the rest? Only that Harolde has men assassinated in front of the SAME drugstore at the SAME time every time! You'd think the cops would at least stake it out.

Side note: Evelyn Brent made a hit in Josef von Sternberg's "Underworld" (1927) as "Feathers", a tough gangster's moll. Humorist S. J. Perelman wrote in the New Yorker piece"Smugglers In The Dust": FEATHERS: (eyes smoldering) Hello, you two-timing bastard.

TYRONE: What's the matter, Feathers?

FEATHERS: Nothing. I always say that when I enter a room.

Police Inspector William Holden tells Evelyn Brent that his men have killed her father during an arrest. She decides she will have her vengeance. It takes five years before it becomes a possibility, when she's singing at her lover's night club. Ralf Harolde is a gangster himself, but neither he nor Miss Brent know that Regis Toomey is Holden's son until he tells her, and she sees his love for her a path to revenge.

There's a lovely ur-noir sequence that opens the movie with Miss Brent being interrogated by the police, and the darkness in the cinematic world persists for the first ten or fifteen minutes, until the somewhat soap-opera-like plot takes over, with Toomey improbably naive.

That's not the William Holden who was a major star from about 1940 through his death in the early 1980s. This was an earlier fellow with the same name; he died in 1932 at the age of 69 after a long career on stage and in film.

This is a solid gangster film. It's interesting as it is precode and it's very sinister on multiple levels.

The plot does take twists and turns and it keeps you interested. The performances are solid, sufficient, believable, but seeing once is enough....