Grilhão Eterno

I was so excited to see Edward G. Robinson's first movie! He plays the ringleader in a gang of thieves, fronted by a psychic "madam". Together with Donald Meek, Alan Brooks, and Nellie Savage, they extort information out of wealthy clients and then rob them. Everything changes when Nellie is killed in a train accident and they go in search of a new madam. Enter Claudette Colbert, in only her second picture. It was before her Harlequin eyebrows, but she's still very beautiful. Her acting is very modern for its time. There are parts of the film that feel like a silent picture, but Claudette propels the audiences into the future with her different style. There are no grand gestures, no facial expressions intended to reach the back row, and no over-exaggeration of her words. I was very impressed; no wonder she became a star!

Eddie G, as much as I love him, wasn't much different in this picture than he was in Little Caesar. Watching this movie will be fun because it was his first, but it won't showcase his greatest performance. In fact, he sometimes takes the back seat (which he rarely did in his later movies) to the storyline, Claudette, or the creepiness of Donald and Alan.

There are some very eerie parts to this movie, and it might not be for everyone. I'd have a comedy on hand for later in the evening, to get you in a better mood. And try to remember the movie is 95 years old. Yes, there are silent passages where no sound was recorded, and yes, women didn't shave under their arms, but that was just the time period.

The Hole in the Wall (1929)

** (out of 4)

Edward G. RObinson plays a man known as The Fox, the leader of a group of thieves. They get away with so many crimes due to help from a psychic but when she is killed the leader fears their criminal days are over. That's until they meet Jean Oliver (Claudette Colbert) who agrees to help them as long as they help her kidnap a child from a woman who caused her to go to jail.

THE HOLE IN THE WALL is a pretty ridiculous drama story that should have been re-written a few times before it was actually filmed. THe film has pretty much been forgotten today except to those who want to see two future legends in their talkie debuts. While the film is pretty stupid all around, the appeal of the two stars makes it worth watching.

As I said, the screenplay here is certainly the worst thing about the picture as the entire thing is just way too dumb to make you actually care about anything going on. The entire thing with the psychic just doesn't work and at times it becomes rather laughable. I'm guess since this was an early talkie the screenwriters just through everyone would be caught up in the dialogue that they wouldn't pay attention to how silly the story was.

The one good thing about the film is that it clocks in at just 63- minutes so it's certainly over before you know it. Both Robinson and Colbert are decent enough in their roles but I'm not sure anyone watching this in 1929 would have guessed that they'd go on to become legends.

The plot for "The Hole in the Wall" is utterly ridiculous and I am pretty sure that audiences back in 1929 must have thought so as well. Sometimes you can still enjoy a ridiculous film...but this strains anyone's ability to suspend disbelief!

When the film begins, a gang of thieves is stuck. Their fake psychic partner is dead and unless they can find a new one, they'll have to disband or get real jobs. When Jean (Claudette Colbert) arrives on the scene, the boss (Edward G. Robinson) thinks perhaps she has the talent to be their next 'Spiritual Adviser'. She agrees with one condition--that they also kidnap Mrs. Ramsey's young daughter. It seems that Ramsey had sent Jean to prison when she was innocent and now Jean wants revenge. But instead of selling back the kid, she plans on raising the kid to be a little crook in order to get her revenge!!! Talk about complicated and wildly improbable!! Even more improbably, Jean writes a letter to Ramsey telling her of her plan!!! Who would be that stupid?!?!

So is this any good? Not really, but for fans of classic Hollywood, it does give them a chance to see Robinson and Colbert in their first talking picture. Neither were famous at this point and it was only Robinson's third film and Colbert's second and she looks far different than she would in the 1930s-40s. Still, Colbert is pretty natural on screen, but unfortunately Robinson is rather flat. His usual bluster and bigger than life persona is absent and the character is a bit dull despite being the gang's leader. In fact, the whole film is very flat and lacks excitement where it should be.

Poorly lit and poorly written but interesting from a historical perspective.You can watch on You Tube under The Charlatan. Colbert is young and not as confident as in her later films Robinson only shows glimpses of his gangsta persona but it is still interesting to watch The plot is very simple and unbelievable.

Hollywood studio scouts were scouring Broadway theaters in an attempt to persuade and hire articulate actors and actresses to make the leap into cinema. Studios spent lots of money for talent scouts after discovering many of their reliable silent movie performers were incapable of making the transition over to sound. These actors either possessed an unpleasant voice, their verbal rhythm was slow or uneasy, or they simply had difficulty remembering their lines. Those whom especially hadn't acted on the stage before were most likely fodder for early retirement.

A good example exists in one of Paramount Pictures earliest talkies, filmed in its New York City studio. The company hired two Broadway stage performers to play the leads in its April 1929 "The Hole in the Wall." Claudette Colbert, 25, signed with Paramount in 1928 for her silky voice with a touch of a French accent and for her looks. A four-year veteran of the stage who had emigrated to New York City from France at the age of three, she appeared in Frank Capra's 1927 lost silent film, 'For the Love of Mike,' before getting the call for the talkie, "The Hole in the Wall."

Meanwhile, 35-year-old Edward G. Robinson, a Romanian-born immigrant to America since nine, had made his Broadway theater debut in 1915. He received Paramount's attention for his role in the stage hit 'The Racket,' which was made into a film the next year. The studio scouts felt he was a natural as a conman in "The Hole in the Wall," his movie debut.

The two became highly successful in their transition from stage to screen. But Robinson's memory of how bad his first movie was caused him to vow to never to watch it. Years later, after Colbert saw "The Hole in the Wall" playing on television, she called up the actor and told him the Robert Florey-directed film wasn't all that bad and he should see it. "The Hole in the Wall", based on a Frederick Jackson play, concerns 'The Fox' (Robinson), working alongside a fake fortune teller to con rich people out of their money. The reliable teller dies in a car accident. Up steps her replacement, Jean Oliver (Colbert), who was previously unfairly incarcerated by a rich society woman and is looking for revenge. The director Florey, went on to have an active career as both a film and television director in A-listed and low budgeted B films well into the late 1940s, before transitioning into television in the 1950s. As for Robinson and Colbert, both would see their names on movie theater marquees for years to come.