L'ultimo ricatto

Almost 30 years before John Wayne did his tribute film to Earl 'Red' Adair the famous fighter of oil fires, Edward G. Robinson starred as a man with an oil fighting company, married to Ruth Hussey and with a son in little Bobs Watson. But in Black mail he's a fugitive from a chain gang being convicted of a robbery he didn't commit and escaping. Robinson keeps a low profile, as low as he can, but it isn't the law that spots him.

No it's Gene Lockhart and he knows him from when the robbery was committed. It was when both were in the navy and Lockhart was the real thief, but got scared and the money from the ship's purser which he stole in Robinson's bunk.

Now the scurvy little sneak develops a new scheme after first ingratiating himself with Robinson asking for a job and then rats him out with an exchange for a confession. You have to see how this works and I can't believe Robinson fell for it, but Lockhart gets control of an oil well that Robinson has a lease on and Robinson goes back to the chain gang.

Gene Lockhart made a career of playing all kinds of rat roles, but he really tops himself in Blackmail. You will love seeing how he gets his in the end.

The chain gang scenes are copied well from the classic film from Robinson's home studio of Warner Brothers. Chain gangs are as bad as they were when Paul Muni was serving on them and he too was framed for the crime he was sentenced for by circumstance. There's also a nice supporting part for Guinn Williams as Robinson's lunkhead assistant who has a good heart and actually proves valuable to him.

Fans of Robinson will like Blackmail it holds up well after almost 75 years.

Edward G. Robinson here is a victim of "Blackmail," a 1939 film starring Robinson, Ruth Hussey, and Gene Lockhart.

Ingram (Robinson, his wife (Hussey) and his son (Bobs Watson, known as the "Crybaby of Hollywood") live in Oklahoma, where Ingram fights oil fires He's considered one of the best. But he has a secret - nine years earlier, under another name, he was on a chain gang for something he didn't do, and he escaped.

All is well until William Ramey (Lockhart), someone from his past, shows up and blackmails him, using the promise of getting Ingram cleared, since it was he who committed the crime. However, he double crosses Ingram, who ends up back on a chain gang.

Ingram decides that this time, he will do his full sentence. Things happen to change his mind.

Gritty drama with Robinson suffering as only he can. Like Bogart, he could be mean as dirt or a sympathetic character. Here he's tough, caring, and sympathetic. Ruth Hussey gives a lovely performance as his wife, and I admit that Bobs Watson was so pathetic when he cried that I cried. He became a Methodist minister but kept acting as well.

Though the acting is effective, this is a routine drama. The actors keep you involved.

Tough guy Edward G. Robinson, who normally dominates every movie he's in, is upstaged in this one, a good, unambitious actioner, first by raging oil well fires, then by the sly performance of Gene Lockhart, as a particularly loathsome, scheming villain, complete with a baby talking Down East accent. The movie is otherwise unexceptional though very skillfully made at MGM, and features an innocent Robinson on the run from the law for a crime he did not commit. As his sidekick, Guinn Williams is presented as so moronic one wonders how he can hold down any job, much less function as E.G.'s second in command in such a dangerous profession as putting out oil well fires, but the ways of Hollywood are sometimes mysterious. The capable Ruth Hussey is wasted in the boring and irritating role of the wife, from whom we want the movie to get away as quickly as possible. Robinson at first seems out of place in the Oklahoma oil fields but is so robust as the hard-driving entrepeneur hero that this is easily forgiven, and besides, he always excelled at playing fearless men.

Here's to You Mr. Robinson. Even when Slightly Miscast and Upstaged by the Villain Edward G. managed to put Verve and Gusto in any Role. Here he goes from Family Man to a Rage Filled, Revenge Seeking Psycho Hell Bent on Saving His Family and Fortune from a Slimy and Totally Repugnant former "Friend".

There are some Minor Cringe-Inducements mostly at the Beginning with some Comedy Relief and Smarmy Family Stuff, but Once the Blackmailer Shows Up Things Kick into Overdrive and there are some Very Effective Chain Gang Scenes and a Suspenseful Escape.

The Oil Fires are Realistic and this is one of the Few Times that MGM tried to be Gritty and Deliver a Message. They were Aping Warner Brothers and did a Pretty Good Imitation.

Back in the mid-1930s, Warner Brothers came out with a shockingly brutal and absorbing drama about the evils of chain gangs. Paul Muni's performance and the script for "I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang" were superb and the film has held up great over the years. Because of this, films like "Blackmail" seem incredibly bland and pale in comparison.

When this MGM film begins, John Ingram (Edward G. Robinson) is a successful and well respected man whose job it is to put out oil fires. Unfortunately, he's also a fugitive from some Southern chain gang-- an innocent man who couldn't prove this but managed to escape. Since then, assuming a new identity, he's gone on to make a productive life and a nice family. However, when a scumbag (Gene Lockhart) comes to town, Ingram is in trouble. While he's just asking for a job, this guy is a crook and is the guy who is actually responsible for the crime Ingram was arrested for years ago.

So far, while the plot is hard to believe, it is worth seeing. What happens next, however, sure strains credibility way past the breaking point. The scum-bag EASILY convinces Ingram that he is willing to own up to his crime but only if he gets a huge payoff. In other words, he'll admit to the crime but escape--leaving evidence that will clear Ingram's name. Not at all surprisingly (since he IS a crook), he tricks Ingram and it's Ingram who is sent to prison. Duh.

For the rest of the film, Robinson spends his time in prison. However, the chain gang is run by a bunch of brutes (though they are FAR less brutal than the guys in the earlier film) and eventually he realizes he must escape in order to ever see his family again.

So why does this film earn a 5? Well, it is entertaining but it breaks absolutely no new ground and pretty much neuters the old plot. The chain gang, while unpleasant, doesn't seem all that bad and instead of this form of imprisonment being indicted, the film actually is all about capturing the real baddie and sending him to prison where he rightfully belongs. Amazingly poor considering the material.