Johnny Apollo

While not a classic for the ages, this pre-noir gangster adventure is an excellent example of the studio product churned out in a short time to top a two-film bill at your local theatre in the 1940's, and one of the things that makes it great fun for committed film fans is the use of familiar faces to back up Tyrone Power, playing a rich kid turned bad boy, and Dorothy Lamour, who surprises us by offering a good deal more in the acting department than in the Crosby-Hope Road films, where she functioned primarily as tropical window dressing.

One fascinating performance is offered by the underused Charlie Grapewin, perhaps known to the average film goer as Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz, or as Grandpa in Grapes of Wrath (Grapewins's most sympathetic and memorable role is as burned-out Jeeter Lester in Jonh Ford's misunderstood Tobacco Road). In Johhny Apollo, Grapewin's take on the burned-out lawyer who takes milk with his Scotch and mumbles Shakespeare when to evade confrontation is both funny and endearing and he becomes a pivotal plot element as the plot thickens.

And thicken it does, with lusty Edward Arnold tossed into jail for embezzlement, and his disowned son, Power, taking up with gangster Lloyd Nolan (always reliable, but here essayed with a nasty undercurrent); much of what Nolan's brutal ganglord does adds a noir element to the film,and a brief scene in a steam bath is right out of Sam Fuller.

Add thug Marc Lawrence from Broadway, Jonathan Hale, reliably a doctor, Fuzzy Knight as a nervous prisoner, and from the Son of Frankenstein, Lionel Atwill, cold and calculating as the lawyer without ethics--until money is dangled his way. The pace never flags, and, except for a short and absurd tagged-on ending that Zanuck probably demanded on behalf of Power fans, the film builds to a dynamic shoot-out in a prison. Not a great classic, but a perfect example of 20th Century Fox machine making a film worth watching.

Tyrone Power puts a sympathetic face on crime in his role as a young man who is drawn into the criminal underworld, after his father is imprisoned for embezzlement. While it does boast exciting action sequences, this film is not just your typical gangster movie: It goes to great lengths to show how a person, like Tyrone Power's character, who is completely disillusioned by his experiences following the discovery of his father's dishonesty, might turn to crime. Tyrone Power gives a sincere and heartfelt performance, which gives an added depth to both his role as Johnny Apollo and to the movie itself. Highly recommended to all Tyrone Power fans and those who enjoy excellent crime dramas.

I found this to be a fairly interesting crime story, the emphasis being more on the story and less on the action. What little action there is takes place at the end of the movie.

Lloyd Nolan plays a low-key gangster and Tyrone Power plays a guy who exhibits good and bad. Dorothy Lamour, Edward Arnold, Charley Grapewin and Lionel Atwill all add to this talented cast. Lamour's tough-talking "dame" character and good cinematography helped this movie be characterized as a very early entry into the film noir genre.

The problem with the movie was the believability of the story. There were too many unanswered questions in here. Why was this person arrested? How and why could this happen, and that? There are lots of holes in here and sometimes they were so prevalent they broke up the continuity of the story.

Okay for one curious look but not worth a purchase, although it's still not available on DVD anyway, and few people buy new VHS tapes anymore.

Embezzler Edward Arnold goes to prison and son Tyrone Power tries to make it on his own honestly. Doesn't work out well. So Tyrone decides Pop was right and that the only way to make it ahead in the world is by being a crook. So he hooks up with gangster Lloyd Nolan and falls for Nolan's girl Dorothy Lamour. When Arnold finds out what his son is up to, he's none too pleased.

Enjoyable gangster drama with a fine cast. Some have said Power is miscast. I think he's okay for the part. It's not really a gritty movie, despite the plot. Maybe if it had been a tough film noir, I could see the point that Power was wrong for the role. But it's not and he isn't. Edward Arnold is good. I doubt the man ever did a bad acting job in his career. His character is somewhat poorly written and hard to relate to, but it's difficult to dislike him due to Arnold's sympathetic performance. Nice to see Charley Grapewin playing something besides a grizzled old-timer without most of his marbles. Beautiful Dorothy Lamour is always a plus and it's good to see her in a serious role. Lloyd Nolan pretty much steals the movie as the gangster Mickey Dwyer. Lionel Atwill is largely wasted as Arnold's attorney.

The biggest flaw with the movie is that its plot isn't always consistent. Arnold's character is a crook who first treats his son like crap for not being okay with his crookedness. Then later he treats his son like crap for becoming a criminal like Dad. Still, it's an enjoyable movie. The script's got some nice dialogue. Watch for the scene where Power chases, tackles, and beats Marc Lawrence's head against the ground! Yikes!

Tyrone Power plays privileged young man Bob Cain, Jr., who adopts the nom de guerre Johnny Apollo when he takes to a life of crime. (Incidentally, this movie thus kicks off a string of at least a dozen crime stories of the ‘40s and ‘50s named Johnny Something-Or-Other: Eager, O'Clock, Stool Pigeon....) Power chooses crime to spite his father (Edward Arnold) by emulating his dog-eat-dog ethics, for financial tycoon Arnold has been sent to prison for embezzlement, causing a rift between the generations.

After Power's initial snit over Dad's letting him down, his attempts to secure him an early parole lead, though `connected' shantoozie Dorothy Lamour, to the underworld. The muscles he developed rowing crew in the Ivy League stand him in good stead as muscle in the mob, for soon he becomes a trusted lieutenant in Lloyd Nolan's crime family (plausibility is not the movie's long suit). But Pop (who has reclaimed his spiritual center in the Big House by welding boilers) disowns his namesake when he learns of his new line of work. In due time, of course, Power ends up behind those bars as well. But that's far from the end of the tale....

The plot of Johnny Apollo, a major production, takes a few turns too many but manages to keep a just-passable amount of credibility. Though Power, in the lead, stays less than persuasive as a menacing mobster – he's too much of a pretty-boy, and lacks the acting resources to turn himself into a pretty-boy psychopath – the rest of the cast compensates. Predictably, Arnold is good, as is, in the role of a mob mouthpiece with a weakness for Scotch-and-milk, Charlie Grapewin (whose first film credit falls in the last year of the 19th Century!); the two seem to be vying for title of America's sweetheart, old-codger division. Best of all is Lamour, with her sad eyes and fetching pout, who leaves an impression here of a skilled actress, more than she managed in all the Hope-Crosby `Road' pictures put together.

Direction is by Henry Hathaway, an uneven craftsman who nonetheless rose to the occasion for a handful of movies; this can be counted among his stronger efforts, along with The Dark Corner, Kiss of Death, Fourteen Hours and Niagara. But Johnny Apollo cleaves more closely to the crime melodramas of the previous decade than to the unsentimental and ambiguous style soon to come. But, in it, one can nonetheless sense – particularly in its heavily shaded photography – the birth pangs of film noir, struggling to come into the world.