Day of Reckoning

"Day of Reckoning" is a surprisingly involving and well-done minor effort from MGM in 1933. It does not stiffly unspool like most films from the early 1930's, as it has excellent pacing and the performances are effortless and realistic. A variety of personalities are on display, played by a troupe of comfortably familiar actors from the era, and weave themselves in and out of the proceedings in a most natural way. Director Charles Brabin orchestrates and maintains a modern fluidity through the entire film.

More than a decade later Richard Dix made a picture with a very similar story in a Whistler feature, but this one seems to be a little more energetic and less maudlin, at least as I remember it now. One especially appreciated element is how the precipitating reason for the ensuing drama is not even depicted (it seems to me that this particular plot and story-telling device was rarely-- if ever-- used in the countless detective and other dramas on television).

As a side note, I explored a scoring quirk that I discerned. This quirk is that the 12 viewers who previously reviewed the film here on IMDb assigned an average score for the film of 8.0, while the other 248 viewers who only rated the picture and provided no review assigned an average score of 6.3, nearly two points lower. There are at least two or three reasons why this might be; however, I will only offer the data as food for thought.

In conclusion, "Day of Reckoning" is dramatic and exciting and is very much worth a look by vintage movie fans.

The strong cast -- including Spanky McFarland away from the Hal Roach studio -- really shines in this well-mannered, but definitely Pre-code drama. Richard Dix ha rarely been better as a man slowly unraveling in prison, but Una Merkel is terrific in a straight role.

Richard Dix cops a plea for embezzlement and is sent to the slammer for two years. Unbeknownst to him, his "friend" (Conway Tearle) hired a crooked lawyer to "defend" Dix, leading to the jail sentence. With Dix in stir, Tearle tries to make sheet music with Dix's wife, played by Madge Evans.

The climax is a bit hard to believe, as Tearle ends up in the same jail with Dix. And only one of these guys is gonna survive. Guess who.

Una Merkel, as Dix's maid, completely steals the film as the not-as-dumb-as-she looks servant. Dix is adequate, although he has a brief meltdown in prison and really overdoes it. Evans looks great, and Teale makes a splendid heel. There are also some nice bits by Raymond Hatton and James Bell as prisoners. Spanky shows up as one of Dix's kids.

Richard Dix as wealthy John Day is celebrating his birthday with his wife Dorothy (Madge Evans) and their friends. But there is trouble brewing. In the opening scene the milkman (Stuart Erwin as Jerry) has been instructed not to give the Days any more milk until the bill is paid up, which Dorothy makes excuses for, yet she still manages to keep a recently purchased expensive evening gown. The cops break up the celebration and arrest John for embezzlement, which he minimizes as just some kind of misunderstanding. It is - other people don't seem to understand that John has taken to "borrowing" money that is not his to satisfy his wife's expensive tastes.

The Days soon find out who their friends are as John doesn't even have the money to make bail. The only person who will help them is Hollins (Conway Tearle). However, his motivation is to keep John in jail so he can have his way with John's beautiful wife. He pays off a crooked lawyer to do just a bad enough job that John gets two years in the county jail when normally he would have gotten probation.

Dorothy talks the talk of the loyal wife, but she likes Hollins' gifts. Two years gives Hollins just enough time for Dorothy to forget John, have his way with her for awhile, and then discard her. However, Hollins' plot is not foolproof. You see, he has a recently discarded mistress, she does not like being replaced by Dorothy, plus she apparently has access to firearms. I'll let you watch and see how this all works out.

This love quadrangle - John, Dorothy, Hollins, the discarded mistress - and the story behind somebody in jail who is loyal to John beyond reason (Raymond Hatton as Hart) would take at least 90 minutes to flesh out halfway properly, but this was probably a second bill film so 68 minutes is all we are allowed. As a result, I felt like I had really been rushed through a story I didn't truly understand.

Now for the bright side - Una Merkel as Mamie, the Days' loyal servant, who somehow manages to keep everything going for the Days' two very small children, nursing them in sickness, and even bringing them to the yard in front of the jail so John can see his children. She is much more of a mom to these kids than their actual mother. Then there is the sweet romance that brews between Mamie and Jerry the milkman. You know how Jerry feels upfront, but you are not sure just how serious Mamie is until the very end. In this film that is a sea of characters who have bad intentions or at least bad actions, Mamie and Jerry are a breath of fresh air and actually take up more screen time than Richard Dix gets.

I'd recommend it, but just remember this little precode was probably never intended to be an A list film.

Richard Dix's whole universe is turned upside down in this pre-Code drama Day Of Reckoning. Wife Madge Evans is a good soul, but a spendthrift and Dix's gets caught for embezzling company funds and gets two years of county time for the deed.

That's enough time villain Conway Tearle figures he has to move in on Madge Evans. He's a friend and neighbor of Dix whose hormones have been pining away for Evans for some time. Tearle even pays for Samuel S. Hinds to be Dix's lawyer to throw the case. And Hinds in his couple of scenes stands out.

Providing a bit of comic relief and stalwart support for Dix and Evans are maid Una Merkel and her boyfriend the milkman Stu Erwin. Isabell Jewell as Tearle's mistress whom he throws over for Evans has some real bite in her scenes.

Life does take a funny old bounce as Tearle and Dix are together for a really thrilling climax. Day Of Reckoning is something these two most definitely have.

As for the film, a bit melodramatic, but the ensemble cast really delivers in this one.