Dark Hazard

Dark Hazard (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Great performances highlight this Warner melodrama about professional gambler Jim Turner (Edward G. Robinson), a man who decides to get married and stop his old ways of life or at least that's what he tells his new bride (Genevieve Tobin). Soon the two are on their way but Jim becomes addicted to gambling and it reaches the point to where the wife decides to leave him. DARK HAZARD is working with a "C" screenplay to say the least but there's no question that the cast is an exceptionally strong one and helps keep the film from falling apart. I think it goes without saying but Robinson easily steals the film as the down-on-his-luck gambler who places one bet too many. At least the role has quite a bit for the actor to do as he not only gets to play the gambler but there's romance, some laughs and a tender side story involving him an a race dog whose name is the title of the film. Robinson perfectly nails all the emotions and is certainly very believable in the scenes where the character breaks from all his gambling. Tobin is also pretty good in the film and it's clear that she and Robinson has some good chemistry together. They had previously made the horrid I LOVED A WOMAN but at least this role gives the two something to work with. Glenda Farrell plays her typical blonde/sex appeal part and does fine work with it. Sidney Toler has a hilarious bit early on picking on Robinson for a certain reason. Henry B. Walthall is mentioned in the credits but while his character's name is said, he never actually appears in the movie so I'm guessing his scene was edited out. Overall, DARK HAZARD features great actors doing strong work but in order for the film to have been better the screenplay still needed some work. At just 72-minutes there's not too much meat but fans of the cast will still want to check it out.

Without good looks or commanding stature, Edward G. Robinson fashioned a long, impressive career out of sheer talent. Curiously enough, he was versatile where his limitations would seem to have worked against his being convincing in a wide variety of roles. During the 1930s, in particular, he often played an "off-center" character, a man with a fractured psyche who, despite good intentions and some sensitivity toward the feelings of others, was too emotionally flawed to find security or happiness.

Such a character was Jim Turner in this film, and, as usual, Robinson's skillful portrayal generates our sympathy for someone barely deserving of it. Too weak to abandon the seedy, sleazy world of small-time gambling, he loses - not once, but twice - the love and forgiveness of a devoted wife, capably played by Genevieve Tobin. Glenda Farrell, as a gold-digging good time gal, and Sidney Toler, playing a shady operator involved in "deals," are also effective.

The picture covers a considerable period of time in only 72 minutes, being composed of a multitude of short scenes. Good and bad: more extensive character motivation would have helped; but there is nary a dull moment.

Most people don't know that this picture exists. What a shame.

Dark Hazard is 80 minutes of sheer delight in this Edward G. Robinson '34 item directed by Alfred Green that I was totally unfamiliar with. Robinson gives a heart warming interpretation of a race track tout and gambler who falls for Genvieve Tobin, somewhat of a wasp with whom they have wedding bliss in California where he's hired to look after Sidney Toler's 1/3 interest in a dog track. His infatuation with gambling causes her to move back with her mother in (Ohio?); he follows her and patronizes the local dog track where he follows the horse Dark Hazard closely. After the horse is injured he buys it for $25 and nurses it back to health and wealth. He has left Tobin and goes back to his old flame, Glenda Farrell (at her intense best). Has all of Warner's fine snap crackle and pop ingredients of that era.

There's a steak of subversive humour running through this. The novel on which this is based is a very serious examination of gambling addiction but this film makes this a jolly, fun adventure. One example is the background music being played as Edward G's marriage starts to crumble: Honeymoon Hotel from FOOTLIGHT PARADE!

Edward G cited this as one of his least favourite pictures. Being a serious actor and a fan of the author (who also wrote LITTLE CAESAR.....and incidentally owned the dog in this movie) he didn't appreciate the frivolous approach which was taken. For the viewer however this makes it a surprisingly enjoyable and entertaining film.

His character has a serious problem, his gambling looks like it's going to destroy his life but that's not what we get. He doesn't care. At one point he wins $20,000, moments later he's broke, having to borrow $5 to get him home. When he meets gorgeous middle-class Genevieve Tobin he tries to mend his ways but the lure of the bet and the lure of his on-off girlfriend, played perfectly by a ridiculously sexy Glenda Farrell is just too much. He prefers fun to respectability.

Films from this period, and certainly those which followed after the Hays code was properly implemented often had a moral message. This has the opposite. Preachiness is swapped for entertainment. It feels like it shouldn't work but it does - it shouldn't be but it's a lovely warm enjoyable hour an a half. It was after all made in the middle of The Depression so maybe they just wanted to cheer everyone up.

If there is any lesson this teaches us, it's that if you've got a gambling problem, don't worry about it because you're likely to end up having lots and lots of sex with Glenda Farrell.

In one of his more unlikable roles apart from his gangster films, Edward G. Robinson plays Buck Turner--a compulsive gambler. In Buck's case, much of his problem stem from his strong need to be a big shot. Again and again, he makes fortunes and blows them because of his gambling. During one of his periods where he swears off gambling, he meets and marries a nice lady, Marge (Genevieve Tobin) on the condition that he not gamble. But being an addict, he soon is playing the big man and starts back to his old ways. Eventually, the wife has had enough and she takes a powder. He eventually returns to her and makes a lot of promises, but he's soon back to his old ways. The event that eventually destroys the marriage completely is when he comes home with a racing dog, Dark Hazard. So how does Val (Glenda Farrell) figure into all this as well as an old flame named Press? See the film.

While I liked most of the film, as it was a nice portrait of addiction and didn't cop out with a happy ending, this ending was a bit strange and anti-climactic. Still, Robinson and the gang did a nice job in this one and it's worth seeing.