'The Tenth Man' (1936)
Opening thoughts: The genre that 'The Tenth Man' fits under is right up my alley and there are films from it that are modest-low budget that are quite good and more despite not being well known. The premise did sound interesting, despite it not being an innovative one (was not expecting the latter though). Had seen a number of positive opinions on the film, including from trusted reviewers that are not always easy to please, so expectations were not low.
'The Tenth Man' didn't strike me as a great film as such with a few things that could have been done better, those few things actually being common in low-modest budget films of this genre during this time period if to be honest. It however was quite well executed with a lot of good things, that may not be a genre or film classic but one that deserves to be better known and does pretty much what it says on the tin (as cliched as that sounds).
Good things: Beginning with the good, 'The Tenth Man' is made with enough slickness and atmosphere. Not lavish, but it's not that kind of film. The sets are simple, but not too cheap. It's directed in an efficient fashion, indicative of a director that knew what they were doing.
Furthermore, the script is taut and hard boiled on the whole, with some great cutting and cynical one liners, and the story is suspenseful and tightly paced on the whole, with a suitable amount of dread. Also was surprised at how topical and relevant it is today and how unsettling in its truth it is.
Acting is good, with John Lodge excelling as a fascinating and morally complex character.
Bad things: Will agree though that the characters mostly are caricaturish and too much like cardboard cut outs, Catherine being the most interesting and the conflict being especially sketchy.
Did feel too that the ending was too obvious too early and there is a very running out of gas and momentum feel in how it was staged, like it had run out of ideas and tacked on as convenient and obvious ending as possible.
Concluding thoughts: Concluding, good if not great.
7/10.
