Great God Gold

Sidney Blackmer is a stock speculator who has been having a run. The head of the brokerage mentions this to columnist Regis Toomey, who interviews him and writes the interview as he goes along. He gives Blackmer an antique Roman coin and leaves, Blackmer sells his positions and the next day the collapse the 'interview' predicts begins. Edward Maxwell (with an Italian accent) and John T.Murray, two shady lawyers, approach Blackmer with the idea of fronting a receivership ring. They'll provide the political connections, Blackmer will collect the fees and they will split the profits. Blackmer says no, but on a whim, flips the coin and following its dictates, accepts. He collects the fees, the graft and Maria Alba, the wife of Maxwell's nephew, Ralf Harolde.

All is not well; when his hotel is taken into receivership, Geoge Irving, Martha Sleeper's father, commits suicide. Miss Sleeper begins to look for answers.

Director Arthur Lubin gives this movie a fatalistic handling. Alas, Blackmer's descent into Faustian damnation is more twee than tragic when contrasted with the workaday attitudes of the other characters, Blackmer gives the performance a good try, and there is a lot of self-awareness self-loathing in his performance. However given the contrast between his words and actions, it goes well beyond pathos into bathos.

This is yet another low-budget film from tiny Monogram Studios. Its actors are small-timers and the sets are relatively simple. However, this does NOT mean it's a bad film--as it's surprisingly good considering its humble roots.

Sidney Blackmer was an excellent but not especially famous actor. Here he plays the leading man, John Hart. However, Hart is NOT your typical leading man but a scheming scum-bag who goes through the stock market crash unscathed and makes a fortune destroying companies. He and his 'friends' use all sorts of dirty tricks to push companies into receivership and although thousands are hurt in the process, all they care about it becoming richer and richer. However, the daughter of one of his victims is determined to destroy the man. So, she gets herself appointed his confidential secretary and slowly collects enough dope on him to sink Hart once and for all. But, out of the blue, destiny steps in and changes everything.

If you see the film, you can't help but think that this sort of person is pretty typical of recent times--with folks making fortunes liquidating companies regardless of the cost to the employees. Timely and pretty exciting to watch even after more than 75 years.

When you see Monogram's opening logo, you can be pretty sure of two things: Production values are going to look like they cost $1.98 and the movie is probably going be just over an hour long. This movie doesn't surprise as the production values are pretty much a couple of desks and a few chairs in grey offices and it runs about 71 minutes.

However, it is a surprisingly interesting little melodrama and Sidney Blackmer and Martha Sleeper do a very nice job of making us care for their characters. John Hart (Blackmer) seems like a very nice guy at first. He's a bit dull, but with a kind face. He inadvertently helps to create the 1928 stock market crash by agreeing with newspaper man Phil Stuart's (Regis Toomey) observation that stocks are overvalued. He only goes along with Stuart because he loses a bet on a coin toss. The way Blackmer makes his important decisions with a coin toss probably paved the way for Carey Grant's brilliant work in "Mr. Lucky." His wayward character also tosses a coin for decisions in that movie. A coin toss gets Blackmer involved in a shady financial scheme. His involvement with criminal lawyers turns out to be a very surprising plot development in the film.

Also surprising is his relationship or non-relationship with heroine Marcia Harper (Martha Sleeper). Hart's shady deals causes the demise of Marcia's father. The rest of the film follows Marcia's relentless attempt to seek justice.

Martha plays the character with a deep and cold seriousness. It is really impressive. She had done 80 films over 10 years before this, mostly silent comedy shorts. Sadly, she only did three or four more films after this. It is surprising that nobody picked up on how good an actress she was from this film. She really looks like an outraged woman out to avenge her father's death.

The newspaperman Phil Stuart provides some nice comic relief. His specialty is alliterative newspaper headlines. For this movie, one of his headlines could have read, "Depression Double Dealing Dance Doesn't Disappoint"

For anybody who wants to see a perfectly good melodrama about the Great Depression made in 1935, I would recommend it.