The Hoodlum Saint

THE HOODLUM SAINT (1946) is a curiosity. It has the feel of a film that would have fit perfectly in 1936 for it has none of the post-war (WWII) sophistication that had been developed over the last ten (10) years. It is clearly locked in as a typical mid-thirties programmer. This may be because the screenwriter 'SPIG' Wead was on his last legs, literally, (died 1947) needed a paycheck and just recycled concepts that he was more successful with a decade ago.

The 'NUTS'...Veteran from WWI (then the GREAT WAR) returns to find job gone. Goes for the easy buck. Makes fortune, loses same, redemption through love, fade out. The films sole saving grace is it's excellent cast headed by William Powell (always dependable), supported by pros' James Gleason, Lewis Stone and Frank McHugh. The feminine interest features Angela Lansbury and Esther Williams. If you have never seen Ms. Lansbury when she was a young hot-tie or Esther Williams out of the pool that alone makes this film deserving of at least one (1) look.

MGM like all major studios was committed to a production schedule of fifty (50) feature films a year. It was the largest and had the most actors on payroll and they had to be kept busy. Look through the principal cast and we bet their credits come to over three hundred (300) features. In less then five (5) years this luxury will disappear and with it the production schedule of fifty (50) a year. Now it would be T.V. that shouldered the burden of production.

Peculiar little movie that seems like it would have been a better fit for a pre-WWII Warner Bros. gangster picture. The story's about a WWI soldier (William Powell) coming home to find he's out of work. He and other returning vets have no choice but to rely on charity to get by. Embittered, he decides to get rich no matter what it takes. But the love of a good woman (Esther Williams) will undoubtedly set him back on the path of the straight and narrow. It's a strange one, to be sure. The aging Powell is miscast, the movie is mistimed, and Angela Lansbury's singing is dubbed despite her having a fine singing voice. The supporting cast is good, including Lansbury, Frank McHugh, Rags Ragland, and James Gleason. But the starchiness of the script that doesn't allow either of its charming leads to do what they do best and the lack of romantic chemistry between said leads is the film's undoing. It's watchable enough for fans of Powell and Williams but not something that will make either's career highlight reel.

TCM had "The Hoodlum Saint" on August 8, 2016, the first of a series of movies starring Esther Williams. Williams was 24 when she co-starred in this movie and she looked great. Star William Powell looked like he was just earning a paycheck, he had the most script lines and this script was a disaster area, completely unreal. This movie had fine stars and character actors at every turn: James Gleason, Frank McHugh, Angela Lansbury, Rags Ragland. All try hard but who is really interested in a story that revolves in part on the story of Saint Dismas, the good thief in the New Testament who becomes the "hoodlum saint." Greenlighting movies like this turkey paved the way for MGM production head Louis B. Mayer's dismissal.

Cliff Reid was the producer of this movie, his first and last for MGM. Reid had worked as a producer or assistant producer at RKO from 1934 to 1942, according to IMDb. If the movie was low budget, like RKO movies starring Lee Tracy, Reid was the producer. These RKO movies are mostly unwatchable, badly written and with bad production values. For a bigger budget movie like "Bringing Up Baby," Reid was the associate producer. Reid is the one who deserves all the blame for how bad "The Hoodlum Saint" is, it has a low budget script tagged to the high production values MGM gave its movies.

Further, William Powell was miscast as the star, he sleep walked through most of the movie. You have Esther Williams full of vitality playing against a very dull William Powell. Producer Cliff Reid imbued this movie with "B" movie values. You know, MGM would have been better off making this movie starring Lee Tracy in William Powell's role as a former newspaperman who sells out at first to get rich on Wall Street before the crash.

This is an old-time enjoyable movie, the plot keeps moving, with new and interesting events around each turn. The movie is lot like real life, which has setbacks, but eventually things like character and work ethics are what win out in the end. The protagonist, a war veteran, becomes very wealthy by bravado, good fortune, creative thinking, and hard work, only to lose it in the great crash of 1929. And I suppose that the way one's character weathers misfortune is equally important to the one's character in earning it.

This is not the shallow stuff you see in the movie houses of today. Ester Williams and Angela Landsbury are not only great actors, but are also beautiful and great to watch.

When The Thin Man series was in high gear one of the endearing parts of those films is how Nick Charles would constantly be running into various criminals he'd had dealings with in the past. Usually he'd run into them while out with Nora and it was always fun to see how Nora took to these characters, people she wouldn't in a million years be associated with herself.

I think that MGM thought it was funny too so William Powell was cast as a returning veteran from World War I who as a newspaper reporter before the war apparently had a similar rogue's gallery of friends. It didn't really work here though, Powell is cast in a part that probably would have fit James Cagney or even Spencer Tracy better.

Plus the fact that in 1946 William Powell was 54 years old. Esther Williams in her memoirs thought it was ludicrous to be working with a man twice her age as a romantic couple. She describes in her memoirs the elaborate makeup preparation Powell went through and in fact he had to wear a girdle to keep his middle age spread from showing too much. According to her, Powell thought it just as ludicrous and in fact would be doing the lead in Life With Father the next year, a role far better suited to his age and talent.

Of course any film that utilizes the combined talents of James Gleason, Slim Summerville, Frank McHugh, and Rags Ragland as the four Damon Runyonesque characters in Powell's life can't be all bad.

Powell is a returning veteran from World War I who can't get his old job back as a reporter in Baltimore. So by hook or crook he makes a great deal of money, some of it by tactics this side of a con game. He meets two women in his life, socialite Esther Williams minus pool and nightclub singer Angela Lansbury dubbed in this film.

He's got these characters though who he likes but are becoming quite a burden around his neck. When Gleason gets pinched for bookmaking he makes up a religious yarn about a mysterious St. Dismas, the good thief crucified with Jesus as the one who gets the Deity to move in mysterious ways. Gleason gets sprung and it works too well as he becomes a fanatic on the subject. Powell, caught up in his own chicanery, becomes a big mover and shaker in a St. Dismas foundation.

It's not a bad story, nostalgic for its times as the action starts at the end of the previous World War. It also could have used someone like Frank Borzage, or Henry Koster, or even Frank Capra who dealt better with this kind of material.