Stranger in Town

Chic Sale was a major Vaudeville star who also appeared on Broadway and in silent films. In this 1931 film from Warners, Sale made his feature-film talkie debut after a few shorts.

He plays Ulysses Crickle, a man who stops "going west" when he gets a boil on his butt from riding in a Conestoga wagon. He decides the start a town on the spot. Fifty years later, we see Crickle as the leading citizen of his Arkansas town. He's the postmaster and he owns the general store. His granddaughter (Ann Dvorak) comes home from business college, and everything seems fine.

But being 1931, things are changing fast. A chain supermarket decides to open a store in town, right across the street from Crickle's. The man sent to open the store (David Manners) falls for Dvorak and becomes Crickle's enemy. The chain store, being a big corporation, fights dirty to drive Crickle out of business. Crickle can't compete with their prices so he institutes a barter system so the locals can get food even when they have no money. Of course Manners is innocent of his company's shenanigans and helps Crickle beat them in the end.

Interesting 1931 looks at the rise of chain stores and how how they ruined local "mom and pop" businesses and also the barter system, which was a fact of life for many during the Depression.

Sale is quite good as Crickle in a role that could have been played by Will Rogers. Dvorak and Manners are good as the young lovers, though they don't have much to do. Other town folks include Noah Beery as Crickle's nemesis, Maude Eburne as the widow with romance on her mind, Raymond Hatton as the wiseguy, Lyle Talbot as the corporate man, and Ben Hall as the store clerk. J. Farrell MacDonald, Louise Carter, Jessie Arnold, Wilfred Lucas, Dorothy Vernon, and Margaret Mann also appear.

In the world of early talkies, this one was excellent. In what was Chic Sale's feature-length talkie debut, his performance was magnificent. It's hard to believe he was actually in his late 40s when playing this role, as he was entirely convincing as an old man. He had everything from the stubborn, set-in-his-ways attitude to the old man walk down pat. His portrayal is very likable, and makes the viewer really want to root for the old man. Noah Beery is the other memorable performance from this film. His heel role as the thorn in Sale's side, constantly looking for any way to mess up his life, really make the viewer hate the guy. This film provides its share of comedic and lighthearted moments, while also focusing on some of the struggles of the Great Depression that was going on when this film was made. Unlike many early talkies, this film does not seem overacted. Overall, it was a well-done job by all.