Two Against the World

So, 1932 is the height of the Depression and millions of folks are out of work. And yet, despite this, Hollywood is cranking out tons of films where you'd never think a depression was on and the stars are all rich and happy...like "Two Against the World". And, you make the rich folks in this particularly self-absorbed and loathsome. This must have been a hard sell back in the day.

When the film begins, the Hamilton family is meeting with their lawyer. It seems that an employee in the company they own died and he is asking them how to proceed. Not one of the family asks if the family of the deceased has a valid claim...they just seem bored and instruct the lawyer not to accept a settlement. At this point, I really HATED the Hamiltons and wanted them to pay and pay dearly. Adele (Constance Bennett) is roused from her boredom about all this when the lawyer for the deceased family arrives. Dave Norton (Neil Hamilton) is handsome and instantly Adele is smitten and pursues him vigorously throughout the film.

Later, in a weird plot twist, Adele's brother murders someone. She witnesses it and she runs. Soon the murder case is dropped because they have no leads. But Norton pushes the Defender's Office to re- open the case...and he doesn't realize that Adele is caught up in it.

The bottom line is that Adele and her family are amoral jerks...so how is the audience supposed to care one bit about her and her brother?! The story is also completely unbelievable and rather silly. Because of this, I disliked the film intensely and see it as a seriously flawed movie. Nice production values but a seriously messed up story that should have left viewers storming out of the theater!