It May Happen to You

It May Happen to You (1937)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

J. Carrol Naish gets top billing in this exciting entry in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series. Naish plays the leader of a gang who are stealing trucks of meat so that they can resell them and make some quick cash. A poor boy at the meat plant joins the gang thinking he can make some good cash but soon people are dying because the meat is spoiled. Fans of the series will certainly get a kick out this entry as it contains your typical good story, darker action and some fine performances with Naish clearly stealing the film. It's rather amazing to watch his films because he never gets enough attention or respect for his acting skills. He works so well in the gangster role that it's a shame he didn't get to play it again some of the Warner big guys like Cagney and Bogart. The story here is certainly meant to make people think twice about the life of crime and it gets the message across just fine. The cinematography is also worth mentioning here and I really enjoyed the dark style brought by director Bucquet.

J. Carrol Naish is the head of a bunch of crooks who are robbing meat trucks during the depression. They have not been very successful so they hire a witless kid to help them. He is broke and needs the money. Not much of a story. It is designed to show the "Crime Does Not Pay." That is the name of a series of films, probably shown in movie theaters before the major feature.

It's another episode of MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series. Moxie and his gangsters hijack trucks on the highway and his crime partner Sheafor fences the stolen goods. In their latest hijacking, the cops show up and Moxie barely escapes. He figures a smarter way to steal. He recruits a money-hungry driver named Eddie who works at a meat packing plant. They steal a load of beef, but the meat is bad.

This is a pretty good episode. It has the advantage of being relatively realistic except the climatic gunfight. The action is laughably old school stiffness and not up to modern standards, but the story is pretty much there.

The "Crime Does Not Pay" series from MGM was a well-made and interesting series of short films illustrating real life crimes. And, as the title says, the criminals ultimately get theirs. Here in "It May Happen to You", once again the production is top-notch. The film is about truck hijackings. At first, the crimes are not that serious but later the crimes involve murder and manslaughter. This is because this time they steal a truckload of meat. Being criminals, they don't exactly care how they handle the meat and it soon spoils. To handle the stink, they soak the meat in chemicals. But these chemicals do nothing to eliminate spoilage and soon people get very sick and even die due to this contaminated meat.

J. Carrol Naish stars in this one as the boss of the baddies. As usual, he's excellent. But what I really liked were how realistic and non-glamorous the police work was as well as how gritty the dialog was late in the film. A few examples would include: a cop exclaiming 'he asked for it' after blasting one of the gang as well as another cop saying 'go on--make a break--save the state a lot of money on a trial' as he takes aim at Naish's head! The only negative, and it's a tiny one, is the number of bullets fired at very close range in an early scene--yet no one is even hurt! Still, a tough and well made short.

J. CARROLL NAISH stars as the boss of a larceny gang among the meat packers who sell stolen goods for quick money. But things turn seriously bad when the meat causes Tomaine poisoning and results in several deaths.

This one packs more of the flavor of a Warner crime melodrama than an MGM product with its quick moving story about the racketeers encouraging a young man to join their crime spree. When the cops begin their investigation, the man becomes their prime suspect after a sudden ability to afford a new roadster. He gets his comeuppance from the gang when they discover that he's being tailed.

Fast little entry in this series, it's pretty easy to watch with good performances from the cast.