Straight Is the Way

Franchot Tone is just out of prison, and mama May Robson is glad to see him. So are girlfriends Karen Morley and Gladys George, representing good choices and bad choices -- it's all very symbolic. Tone never wants to go back to prison, but his old gangster friends and the difficulty of getting a job stand in his way.

It's based on a play by Dana Burnet and George Abbot, and it had been made as a silent as FOUR WALLS. I haven't seen that version, but there are hints in this one that these are all Jews from New York's Lower East Side, which makes the casting of the absolutely whitebread Tone and Miss Robson absurd. There's no doubt he was a serious actor, but he couldn't set foot on a stage without letting you know he he went to an Ivy League school by his demeanor. While director Paul Sloane handles the issues seriously, hearing Tone speak with Nat Pendleton, who, this movie would have us believe, grew up on the same block, destroys any illusions.

Straight is the Way (1934)

** (out of 4)

MGM melodrama has Franchot Tone playing Benny Horowitz, a man recently released from prison who returns home to his mother (May Robson) who prays that he goes straight. He has a good woman (Karen Morley) who loves him but Benny gets involved with a former flame (Gladys George) who certainly doesn't have good intentions with him. This is a remake of a 1928 film but it has a lot more in common with the countless crime pictures that Warner and MGM were releasing through this early part of the decade. While watching the picture and Tone I couldn't help but think that in a couple years Humphrey Bogart would be making "B" pictures like this one at Warner. Tone, while at MGM, got to star in some bigger budgeted pictures but there were a lot of "B" movies like this one where the bigger stars at the studio got the great roles and he had to appear in stuff that, like Bogart, was below his talent. This film here is just so corny that you can't help but laugh at it at times and especially the first twenty-minutes. Tone returns home and we get countless preachy scenes where the mother just stops everything to pray and the "good-faithed" woman is constantly talking about the good in the world. This stuff comes off so forced that the well-intentions just come off laughable. Even sillier is when we're told about her heart condition and we even have a wacky subplot dealing with the old flame who just happens to want to fix Tone for not being "into" her. The entire film lasts just 59-minutes so there's not too much plot but what's here just doesn't work as it comes off rather tame as we've seen this type of thing countless times before and in much better quality. The cast is good for the most part with Tone, Morley, Robson and George fitting their roles just fine. Nat Pendleton is on hand and offers up good support.

While "Straight is the Way" is not a bad film, it does have one big strike against it. The main character, Benny Horowitz, is a Jewish guy living with his Jewish family...yet Hollywood decided to hedge its bets and made this the most Gentile-looking Jewish family...with Franchot Tone playing Benny. Now I don't think it ruins the film...plus not every Jew looks like the stereotypical Jewish person. But it sure did seem odd having Tone (of Irish ancestry) playing this role. Perhaps part of the problem is that in films of the day, MOST Jewish actors were comedians. Ricardo Cortez (who, despite his name, WAS Jewish) could have taken on this role...and I can't help but think that many others would have been better suited to this than Tone.

When the film begins, Benny is getting out of prison. It's not only been rough on him but his dear mother (May Robson) and she is terrified that he'll return to his old friends and his old ways. And, although Benny tries, the pull of his old girlfriend and old gang members is strong. Two especially bad problems are his trashy ex-girlfriend and a menacing hood named Monk (Jack La Rue).

This film, despite the odd casting, is a very nice B-movie...clocking in at under and hour. It works well because of the fine writing and Tone is very good...though not especially Jewish. Well worth seeing and a lot better made than most Bs of the day.

Stop me if you've heard this one before:

A man gets out of prison. He wants to go straight, but he can't because of his record, so he returns to a life of crime.

That's what Benny Horowitz's story was shaping up to be. Benny (Franchot Tone) was recently released from prison after a five year stretch. He went right back to his old neighborhood where he was sure to run into his old crew. The only thing that was going to keep him from being a recidivist was his mother (played by May Robson) and perhaps a caring friend named Bertha (Karen Morley). He wanted to go straight for his sake and his mother's sake, but there were many forces trying to pull him back into street life. Among them were Monk, who was played by Jack La Rue, the perennial gangster and thug. I bet Jack La Rue played a gangster in half or more of his roles--especially in the early-thirties. Also trying to bring Benny down was his old girlfriend Shirley (Gladys George). She was a real piece of work.

I liked "Straight is the Way." It didn't go really deep into the troubles of being an ex-con, but you got the idea. It was a solid enough story with decent enough performances.

Free on Odnoklassniki.

It was very rare to see Jewish characters in movies, and even television until maybe the 1980s. Willy Loman probably is meant to be. Fred and Ethel Mertz -- Need I identify the work in which any of these appear? -- probably were too. But Hollywood chickened out.

Not so here. May Robson is very concerned about having the Sabbath candles lighted. Her son, played by Franchot Tone, is just out of prison. They live in a walk-up apartment in a tenement (as do I.) Oddly, it seems that this building has only four floors. Tenements usually have five and sometimes six.

Tone is at his best in this sort of serious role. Also, as Bertha, the girl his mother ants him to marry, Karen Morley is most touching. Gladys George plays a sneering bad girl. To me, that's a waste: She could be so poignant she could break your heart. Here, as Shirley, she looks a little like Mae West and is not at all likable. (This is not to say the actress turns in a bad performance. She was incapable of that.) Nat Pendleton gives a subdued performance. That guy was never a star but he was always reliable.

I'd be curious to know what motivated MGM, of all studios, to turn out a movie with what then was such a daring setting. It pays off, in any case. The plot is routine but the honesty of the characters' ethnic makeup is refreshing.