Born Reckless

Born Reckless (1930)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

John Ford drama about a wannabe gangster (Edmund Lowe) who gets busted after a heist but instead of going to prison, the judge makes a deal with him. Instead of jail the man will enlist for WW1 and if he serves his country proudly then the judge will throw out the evidence against him. This all goes well and the man returns home a war hero but he soon learns that his old gang has killed his brother in law so he goes out for revenge no matter what it might cost him. In the end, this film is killed by its standard and routine screenplay, which tries to do way too much and it doesn't do any of them in any original form. The movies tries to mix the gangster genre with a war genre with an added touch of the revenge drama but all three are boring and don't feature anything we hadn't seen countless times in the silent era. I've never been a fan of Lowe but he actually comes off decent here and plays the role off as well as can be expected. The supporting cast, including Lee Tracy, are all standard and forgettable. The climax of the movie is certainly the best thing and Ford's use of a swinging door leads to a great thing but there's nothing else going on here.

In his long career John Ford shared directorial credit in two other films, Mister Roberts and Young Cassidy. Both were considerably better than Born Reckless. Someone named Andrew Bennison who was mostly a screenwriter was the co-director, presumably to help Ford over the bumps of the new sound media.

I saw and reviewed Ford's film, The Black Watch some months ago and he could have used the help. By the time Arrowsmith and Up The River were in theaters, I think John Ford was used to the sound media.

Except for The Whole Town's Talking possibly, I'm not sure if John Ford ever directed anything else that could remotely be called a gangster film. Our hero protagonist here is Edmund Lowe who after being caught along with some other of his friends in a jewelry heist is given the choice by a district attorney to enlist in the army or stand trial. He and his friends are local heroes in their neighborhood and the District Attorney is running for judge. Lowe and company take the offer.

By the way, Roy Stewart as the DA is another type that Ford would use over and over in films, the self satisfied bloviating blowhard who was usually in a position of great responsibility and often misused it. Coming to mind immediately with Stewart as the DA is banker Gatewood in Stagecoach who was so memorably played by Berton Churchill.

The story than goes to very familiar ground for Ford in the military. This is the best part of the film by far and absolutely pure John Ford. All the rough house style comedy that you saw in his later military setting pictures is right here. You'll see Ford regulars Jack Pennick and Ward Bond here.

Back in civilian Lowe sets himself if not as an outright gangster, he becomes a club owner, aka runs a speakeasy which is not quite condoned by polite society. Ford has a great old time ribbing Prohibition, still in affect in 1930. On a more serious note like Al Pacino, his friends are determined to drag him right back in again.

The version I saw of Born Reckless had some footage left out which left some holes in the film so part of its problems come from that. The rest might very well be the result of Ford being forced to share director credit with someone not anywhere close to his talents. It's not a bad film, but not real worthy of what we would expect from John Ford.

John Ford continues to be flummoxed by early sound while Edmund Lowe is a sorry case for an Italian in this hackneyed mobster pic. Spitting one tough guy cliche after the next it fails to even approach the onslaught of classic gangster films (Little Caeser, Public Enemy, Scarface) with more convincing leads that would follow over the next year.

Louis Berretti (Lowe) is about to get sent up the river when a judge gives him an option to go to war instead, which he accepts. Upon return he goes straight and opens a club but his loyalty to his old pals remains and a spat between factions threatens to ruin his future.

As in his previous Black Watch, Ford seems confounded at getting anything but stilted performances out of his actors. The wooden Lowe is dreadfully miscast, looking more upscale financier than slum grown with the rest of the characters outside of a buoyant Lee Tracy not worth mentioning for their own good.

There are some tense moments and limp attempts at humor but Ford's ham fisted direction squanders them in this flaccid gangster pic devoid of the violent passion that would infuse the aforementioned films waiting in the wings.

How much of this film was directed by Andrew Bennison and how much by John Ford is your guess. All I know is that with Ford at the helm, I sure expected more from this very flat film.

"Born Reckless" is a gangster film with rather odd casting. Edmund Lowe stars in this film and frankly he didn't seem at all the gangster type. Part of this might be because I've only seen Lowe in about a dozen films (and he made over a hundred) and none of them ha him playing anything even closely resembling a criminal. Usually, he played very sophisticated and cultured sorts of men and with his lovely diction it just felt odd to have him hanging out with the sorts of Warren Hymer in the film--Hymer usually playing idiots or thugs. So, from the onset I had trouble accepting Lowe in the film--although I like him as an actor.

The other problem I noticed is that the film didn't seem sure whether or not to make Lowe a bad guy or a good guy. At the beginning he seemed kind of bad--after all, he was involved in an armed robbery. then, however, only minutes later he seemed like a swell fella when he met his sister's new boyfriend. And, when the police brought him in because of the robbery, he agreed to serve in WWI in order to avoid prison--and he served with distinction. Later, after he got out, he was not the most law-abiding of citizens (opening a speakeasy), but he also had a very, very moral code--one you'd certainly not expect from the owner of a speakeasy!! As a result, the film was muddled despite having some very interesting elements and a dandy violent finale.

With all the great gangster films of the early 30s, my attitude is that you should see all of them first! With wonderful films like "Scarface", "Littel Caesar" and "Public Enemy" (among others), why mess with this mediocre and poorly written film?

It's a gangster film! It's a war picture! It's a family drama! It's a story of unrequited love! It's a musical! It's a complete mess! It's not sci-fi or horror, but then Lon Chaney had just died and Fox didn't have Bela Lugosi under contract! But I digress.

Louie Beretti (Edmund Lowe) is working a safe cracking job with his gang in the middle of a parade (at night???), when a cop gets suspicious about the car waiting for them, and they have to abort the robbery. They manage to get away, but later Beretti and two of his partners in the job are nabbed by the police and given the choice of either going to war (WWI is in progress) or going to trial. They choose the former. Only Beretti returns alive, and opens a successful and classy speak-easy, which the police obviously know about because they bring it up to him as something positive that he has going on in his life (???). However, he gets not even one prohibition era raid. But you can take the man out of the mob, but it's not so easy to take the mob out of the man.

This was an early sound effort for John Ford, and, like I said, what a mess! John Ford gets better with sound, and quickly, so this is just Exhibit A of how good directors, in the face of the new technology, seemed to forget everything they knew about the art of motion picture making.

Edmund Lowe makes a brave effort, and I really like most of the films I've seen him in, but his bravery is not enough. For one, he's got a sister and parents who speak with an obvious Italian accent, but he sounds like he's from Brooklyn. When he's in the army in France everybody in his company sounds like they are from Brooklyn. Did nobody outside of New York City enlist in WWI?

As for the criminal gang he runs with, they all are so anonymous. They are all so non-descript looking and sounding I really couldn't tell one from another and that muddles the plot. Catherine Dale Owen, as the sister of one of Beretti's friends in the army who doesn't come home, is given very little to do. I guess it's a tribute to Lowe's acting that I can figure out that she's the classy girl who got away - She married someone else. Because I for sure couldn't figure it out from the dialogue or the situations.

What's good about it? For once, Fox made good use of contract player Warren Hymer as "Big Shot", head of the gang. Also, there's Lee Tracy in only his second credited role as a reporter - his go-to persona. He's there to make wry commentary on the various situations, and he does a good job of it.

If you are a Fox completist, or a student of early sound, or you just like Lee Tracy this might be worth your time.