Dynamit

... are clearly illustrated here in a tale that includes a fascinating look at the idle rich at the end of the roaring 20's who are so bored that they'll try anything for a thrill, owe their income to forefathers long dead, and basically play all night and sleep all day. But that's just the set-up for the real story.

Ordinarily I'm not that huge a fan of DeMille, but I found his first foray into sound, "Dynamite", a very good and innovative film. The actors don't speechify endlessly, the camera moves, and the story moves with it. Unlike many films from 1929 it's worth a repeat viewing for the entertainment value, not just the novelty of seeing an industry in transition.

That doesn't mean that there isn't plenty of an industry in transition on exhibit, but rather than inane musical numbers, De Mille uses sound appropriately and also employs largely unknown actors from the stage to keep the emphasis on the plot and in particular, the relationships. From the hammering of the builders of Hagan Dirk's gallows and the singing of "How Am I to Know" by a fellow death row prisoner played by Russ Columbo during the wedding scene, to the strange aero wheel race at the country club, to the playing of a particular song on the radio introducing a romantic moment, this film was an innovative technological marvel when it was first released. However, technological marvels fade with time, and what you do remember are relationships that hit home and are memorable. Many have already stated the outrageous premise of the plot. What is not outrageous and rings true after almost 85 years is how you don't get to pick who you love - it just happens and it can often be most inconvenient, and how heroes can be found in the strangest places and in people you would not think would be up to the task.

I'd recommend this one highly and not just to early talkie enthusiasts.

Dynamite (1929)

*** (out of 4)

Cecil B. DeMille's first talkie was the first of three pictures that the legendary director would make at MGM. The filthy rich Cynthia (Kay Johnson) needs to be married on her birthday or else she'll lose millions from her grandfather's will. The only problem is that her boyfriend (Conrad Nagel) is already married to a woman who doesn't mind her husband dating Cynthia but she refuses to marry him unless the money is right. On the other side of the tracks, convicted killer Hagon (Charles Bickford) is about to be put to death and offers his body for $10,000 so that his kid sister will be taken care of. Cynthia decides to marry the death row inmate so that she can be "married" on her birthday and since she'll be a widow soon after she can get back to her normal life. The only problem is that after the marriage the real killer comes forward and Hagon is set free.

Is that enough plot for you? DYNAMITE features enough plots for about ten different movies and everything I wrote above is just the opening forty-minutes and that leaves eighty-seven more minutes of craziness. This is without question an incredibly bizarre film but there's no question that it's highly entertaining on so many levels. One such level is that it's just downright nuts from start to finish and I just sat there watching it in a complete amazement that anyone could actually pull it off. DeMille proves what a genius he was by taking this outrageous stories and making them work. If any other director had tried this we'd laugh them right out of the theater. I'm not sure what DeMille's secrets were but he makes us care about the characters and their fate. It also doesn't hurt that we're given some excellent performances with Bickford leading the way as the tough coal miner. This is the type of role he could play in his sleep and he pulls it off wonderfully. Johnson is very believable and good in her part as is Nagel. Julia Faye plays his wife and we get supporting performances from Joel McCrea and William Holden.

DYNAMITE features some very campy moments including the scene where the killer confesses to the crime. I dare you not to laugh during this sequence. I also found it rather hilarious how casual the wife, her husband and the lover were at hanging out with each other. I think this threesome relationship is something that even Jerry Springer would roll his eyes at. Still, this is so entertaining that it really doesn't matter and it would make a great double feature with DeMille's other 1929 film, THE GODLESS GIRL.

There is no doubt that this is movie, resurrected by the Turner Classic Movie network, which reminds us all that fine cinematic entertainment was being made at the very beginning of "the Talkies." The plot was fairly clever for that day and time, and it simply shreds conventions.

The in-between-the-lines context of this movie is also remarkable. Recall that Prohibition of alcoholic beverages had been in effect as a federal mandate for nearly ten years, and that many States had been "dry" with Prohibition for longer than that. But "the glittering society" depicted in this movie was positively soaking in booze. Clearly this movie was written and filmed well before the banking crisis of 1928-29 turned into the bank failures and bank runs of the early 1930s. The pace of the language, the styles, the ways of talking and relating expressed in "Dynamite" show the viewer -- now seventy-five years later -- that the Roaring '20s were very frenetic, indeed.

Prohibition was something for the small towns and rural areas, or so it was said, then. It came into being because activist female leaders made their case that drunken behavior and alcoholism were twin punishments on women and on their children. The majority of bad and abusive drunks in that era, 1880 to 1920, were men, of course. The ones who suffered from their abusive behaviors were their women and their children, or others in their families.

This is a movie which is all about women and men. The lead character, Buddy Derks, is about to be executed for a murder he didn't commit. In a drunken carouse, the young man who committed the murder assaults his drinking buddy with a knife, and this fellow in his turn shoots his friend, fatally wounding him. Before he dies, on the floor of the swank club where they're drinking, he confesses to the murder which Derks has been saddled with. Justice is swift, surprisingly so, and Derks is suddenly released from death row.

He goes then to confront the society 'dame' who paid him $10,000 to marry her, in a jail cell ceremony. The why and wherefore of this marriage of convenience are really extraordinary and that twist makes the movie worth seeing, alone. But suddenly the "dame" has a husband that she really does not want, and that's where the fun begins ....

Bickford is amazing in this movie. He clearly overacts, but it seems somehow so natural for him to do so. Everybody in this moving is either dancing or roaring, it seems, so now we know something about how the Roaring '20s roared !

This "Dynamite" is pure dynamite. TCM has done film buffs a great service by showing it all, and there's every reason to petition them to show it again and again, and not just in the middle of the blooming night !! This movie earned an * 8 * for my vote and I would have given it higher marks if the sound track was made more clear, all the way through. As it stands, it is a unique and appealing cinematic treat.

I recommend it most highly and without mental reservations.

Please also go into the external reviews on the IMDb for this extraordinary film and read the fascinating and informative page from 'moviediva'... this person/site offers excellent insights with great photos and production history not found elsewhere... this has been every time I find information from Moviediva... so thankyou whoever you are. MGM's exciting and technically innovative 1929 production DYNAMITE is exactly that... a moral fable of a vulgar wealthy woman and her immoral flighty glamor friends learning about the hard working honest poor side of life. This is all of course, an excuse for Cecil B De Mille then at MGM for three films to showcase the latest in talkie production methods. I agree with the other positive comments on this page that DYNAMITE is a 20s art deco masterpiece and an absolute feast of Jazz age wildness and lavishness. You will also find this level of breathtaking snazzy art deco 20s life in "The Divorcée" of 1929 and the 1930 Douglas Fairbanks film from united Artists "Reaching For The Moon".... each film absolutely essential for early talkie art deco astonishment for anyone who loves this early talkie period before The Depression stopped the party. DYANMITE is a good film with a compelling story... and the pre code language and sex topic at the peppy sports party (with the wheel race with the women spinning about) in the latest in art deco swimming costumes will re set your dial for 20s party frankness. See handsome Joel MacCrea as an almost-extra. This has been screening on a daily loop on TV in Australia so we can see it and examine it repeatedly. Well worth your time.

I can't believe this was made in 1929! It would seem much later. 'Dynamite' was directed by Cecil B. DeMillle and featured Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, Julia Faye, and Joel McCrea.. Apparently it was DeMille's first talking picture!

I got lucky because they broadcast this on TCM the same week the classic movie channel premiered their recent biography 'Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic (2004)', another TCM film worth watching. It is devoid of the usual colossal cast and the behemoth type epic drama associated with most DeMille movies but am I ever glad I stayed up late for this one...the sets and costuming were pure eye candy! And while it is more simplistic than movies we think of as DeMille classics there are some remarkable scenes in this film including a glass walled bathtub with bath salts as big as the coal chunks mined out of the heroines'temporary' husband's work place. I'll not quickly forget the women's 'aero wheels' event during the sporting day at the country club. Could this have even been the inspiration to the wacky Busby Berkeley extravaganzas that didn't appear for at least another four years after 'Dynamite'? The costumes in this movie are museum worthy. There's also tremendous amount of Deco decor which is discriminating and sublime as a period piece.

The plot premise is rather sappy...spoiled rich kid falls for poor coal miner who teaches her a lesson in reality...where haven't we all heard that story before... but it's easy to forgive some minor flaws with this picture because visually it's too damn delicious to forget. The acting was decent and at times even humorous, especially amongst the love triangle. This relationship was obliging liberated given the era. And oh...the parties!

I also appreciate the lushness of a truly dynamic black and white movie from someone who understood how color translates when it desaturates. If I saw this movie when it premiered I would have marked it an 8 1/2 on a scale of 10.