This very well written and acted social drama features veteran actor Chester Morris in a great role as your typical worker bee, trying to support wife Helen Mack and their two children, caught up in a loan shark scheme and desperate to pay it off before his family is threatened. He steals $10 from petty cash at work, loses his job and goes to work for the WPA where his name is listed in a public accessible file. After being found and brutally beaten, Morris agrees to testify, cooperating with tough D.A. Thomas Mitchell to bring down Leo Carrillo, head of the racket.
This is one of the best films which most people have probably never heard of, because it comes from Columbia Studios, best known in the 1930's for it's Frank Capra feel good dramas, Grace Moore musicals and Irene Dunne screwball comedies. Warner Brothers put out films like this by the dozen, and the ones Columbia did usually paled I comparison. However, that's not the case here, a genuine hidden classic that 82 years later is as good as it was back then.
This is one of the best films which most people have probably never heard of, because it comes from Columbia Studios, best known in the 1930's for it's Frank Capra feel good dramas, Grace Moore musicals and Irene Dunne screwball comedies. Warner Brothers put out films like this by the dozen, and the ones Columbia did usually paled I comparison. However, that's not the case here, a genuine hidden classic that 82 years later is as good as it was back then.