I'd Give My Life

Some of the same plot elements in I'd Give My Life are also found in Manhattan Melodrama. And certainly this film qualifies as a melodrama. Looking at both films you can see the advantages in production values at MGM versus some fly by night independent outfit.

The film is based on Broadway play from the 20s called The Noose that ran for 197 showings in the 1926-27 season. Among the cast in one of the small roles was the as yet unknown Barbara Stanwyck.

Tom Brown is a young, but charming hoodlum who shows the toughness and vulnerability of being a foundling and raised in an orphanage. He's a pet protégé of racketeer Robert Geckler who Governor John Standing has promised to get rid of in his state.

When Brown balks at an order, Geckler gives him an account of his real history and truly shows what a rat he is. Brown shoots him and then offers no real defense in the crime.

I can't say much more but the Governor is under pressure to commute the sentence. In the end he's shown why.

The women in the cast all have vital roles and they are Janet Beecher as the Governor's wife, Helen Lowell as his mother, and Frances Drake as the torch singer carrying a torch for Brown.

At a studio like MGM this could have been another Manhattan Melodrama. But the production is pretty shoddy.

Tom Brown kills gangster Robert Gleckler. He confesses. During his trial, his only statement is "He deserved to die." Apparently this isn't Texas, because while everyone in the state agrees with that, the law is the law and the youngster must hang. No one wants to do it, not the governor, not his wife, not the warden or the guards at the prison (which seems to be next door to the governor's mansion, which in turn has no security: very odd). However, since Brown will offer no further statement, and wants to get it over with, the governor's hands are tied. Brown will hang on schedule.

It's based on a play by H.H. Van Loan and Willard Mack, and it is filled with some fine actors giving excellent performances. Paul Hurst, Janet Beecher, Guy Standing, all of them are performers who knew how to act. Gleckler is a treat as the gangster that Brown kills. Although director Edwin L, Marin and cinematographer Ira Morgan don't open it much, it doesn't need a cinematic treatment. It's got a script and a cast that are fascinating by themselves.