The Star Witness

Smooth programmer from that gangster mecca of the 30's, Warner Bros.- First National. Chic Sale's boisterous old man steals the show as a Civil War vet who's not about to surrender to age. (Actually, Sale's still in his 40's.) The actor spreads it on pretty thick, while the rest of the cast remains surprisingly low-key for the time. As the hard-driving DA, Huston's his usual authoritative self, lending the movie a sense of needed gravity.

Except for the shootout scene, the movie's more a family drama than anything else. Witnesses to the shootout, the Leeds' family, has to decide whether to testify against the chief gangster or endanger the one young son who's being held hostage. In short, is their first duty to community or to family. The dilemma generates the movie's main suspense. My favorite scene, however, is the family dinner where the two little boys see who can out pig-stick the other as the dishes get passed around. It's a lively, well-directed bit of nonsense.

It's easy to miss what Grandpa' s (Sale) sometimes saying when he orates on the duties of being an American. His repeated references to the problems "foreigners" are making sounds rather contemporary (2015). But for Gramps, it sounds like he's blaming Italians since the gangster "Campo" is the one making problems for his family. But then in 1931, big Al Capone was making headlines as the racketeer boss of Chicago. So he may be the real reference behind Gramps' innuendo. Otherwise, the old man makes a pretty good case for putting community first.

That aside, the movie's a generally entertaining, smoothly directed artifact of the period.

A family witnesses a gangster commit murder and are then threatened into keeping quiet in this fine Pre-Coder directed by William Wellman. Walter Huston plays the tough district attorney who pressures the family to testify. Huston made a lot of great movies, particularly in the early '30s. He's good in this but he's outdone by scene stealer Chic Sale as the Civil War veteran grandfather who insists upon doing his civic duty and fighting back against the criminals, no matter the cost. He's hammy but in the best way. Dickie Moore is very cute as one of the little kids. The rest of the cast is solid, including Grant Mitchell, Sally Blane, Nat Pendleton, and Ralph Ince as the gangster killer. It's a movie made in the early sound era so it's a little creaky. There's also some preachiness that seems to be off-putting to some reviewers but didn't bother me much as it's all well-intentioned and understandable, especially in the time in which it was made. It's a good movie that will please most fans of the kinds of urban crime dramas WB made so well. Go into it with the right frame of mind and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

In The Star Witness gangster chief Ralph Ince makes two big mistakes. One is that he does commit a murder. The second is that in escaping he did a brief home invasion of your average American family who are now mostly witnesses to the crime he committed. But getting them to tell their story is the subject of this film and it's what District Attorney Walter Huston has to do.

You can't get much more average than the Leeds family. Father and mother Grant Mitchell and Frances Starr, children, Sally Blane, Edward Nugent, George Ernest, and Dickie Moore. And they have their maternal grandfather Chic Sale living with them as well. He's the only one that wants to do his civic duty and hence he's Huston's Star Witness.

Sale has a really great part as the feisty old Civil War veteran and he steals every scene he's in, even from Walter Huston. He also speaks some of the more ethnocentric lines that mirror the view that The Star Witness takes about foreigners coming in to ruin this country. That was not an uncommon view of what Middle America thought of the urban gangsters who seem to come up from nowhere during those Prohibition days.

The Leeds family endures a lot, a beating to one family member and a kidnapping of another. The film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. And the shootout with the gang and law enforcement is one of the best that Warner Brothers did at the time. Of course this having been directed by William Wellman who did The Public Enemy that year, you would expect the best.

...Our the grandpa's hour.

More than the gangsters ,it's a detailed depiction of an American family circa 1930:the father,proud of his job who worries about his son who's given up high school,the mum everyone would like to have ,the daughter who forgets dinner time in her squeeze's arms,and the twins who are absolutely lovable ("Don't go to sleep first ,please!").

And there's the grandfather ,playing the Yankee doodle on his flute .Have you noticed that this tune plays the same role as Doris Day's "Que Sera Sera" in Hitchcock's "The man who knew too much" (1956)?And there's this grandpa who is finally the most courageous person of the family .So old he does not even tell you his age ,but proud of his country and resisting to the gangster's hateful blackmail.

A good film by Wellman.

Star Witness, The (1931)

*** (out of 4)

Warner gangster film has several flaws but remains highly entertaining throughout the 67-minute running time. An American family sees gangsters kill two undercover cops and they plan on testifying but soon the gangsters are threatening their lives. Things take a turn for the worse when their young son is kidnapped by the gangsters but the D.A. (Walter Huston) must find a way to get their testimony. As I said, there's all sorts of flaws with this film and like many early talkies it does too much talking but there's still plenty to enjoy here including the frankness of the pre-code drama. There's some rather strong violence including a beating, the shootout and some more abuse towards the kidnapped child. These pre-code elements certainly set it apart plus you've got Huston chewing more scenery than ten other actors could combined. Frances Starr, Grant Mitchell, Ralph Ince, Dickie Moore and Charles Sale co-star for director William Wellman. Received an Oscar nomination for Best Story.