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"Invisible Stripes" is by no means a great film but I enjoy the heck out of it. Any crime picture that has George Raft and Humphrey Bogart is going to be worth a look. Here they play two cons: Raft planning to go straight and provide for his Mom and kid brother while Bogey returns to his criminal ways. There are so many interesting angles to this picture for true film buffs. First, Raft's younger brother is played by 21 year old William Holden in his second film. Watching him in this it is amazing he made many more; he is pretty whiny and forgettable as the hotheaded sibling. The great British actress Flora Robson plays their mother in a colossal bit of miscasting but since her role is minimal she retains her dignity (although some of the lovey-dovey exchanges with her movie son Raft are borderline incestuous). Bogey is his typical brilliant self and easily walks off with the picture. While he is continuing his cycle of bad-guy supporting roles his character is not without some redeeming features. Cast as his moll is Lee Patrick; the two would combine again in a couple of years as Sam Spade & Effie Perrine in "The Maltese Falcon." Another interesting footnote in the film is the brief appearance of Leo Gorcey as a department store clerk.

And finally I come to the star, George Raft. He has gained a reputation as a mercilessly wooden performer and some of it is deserved. I have always liked him and find this performance relatively solid; he is acted off the screen by Bogart in their scenes together and his one shot at emoting over his plight as an ex-con is comical but in the overall he is very likable. This is the kind of role Raft wanted to play: the tough guy who is good to his Ma, loyal to his friends, and possessing a strict code of ethics. Despite turning down nearly every role that made Bogart a star, Raft's brief career at Warners represents his best work.

If you are a fan of old Warners crime pictures you will have a good time with "Invisible Stripes."

After a few years when you've been incarcerated, as you've been patient and composed, quietly waited, you're released out on parole, look for work on the payroll, but all you find is that ex-cons are often slated. Persistence is the trait that you exhibit, you find a role that you would usually prohibit, but the die cast long ago, means privilege has to forgo, accused of a recent crime, but it don't fit. So old habits are revived and you go back, to a job that lets you visit and ransack, with Chuck Martin and his gang, you have intent, you have a plan, but there's always going to be, a big payback.

Cliff Taylor (George Raft) and his pal Chuck Martin (Humphrey Bogart) are released together from Sing Sing. Cliff wants to regenerate and have a straight life while Chuck has no intention of changing his lifestyle. Cliff wants to support his mother Mrs. Taylor (Flora Robson) and his younger son Tim Taylor (William Holden) that can not afford to get married with his girlfriend Peggy (Jane Bryan). However he is discriminated by the society and has difficulties to get a job. When he sees Tim thinking to switch to a life if crime, Cliff seeks out Chuck and decides to join his gang to heist banks and make money to buy a garage for Tim. What will happen to the Taylor brothers?

"Invisible Stripes" is an entertaining gangster film with the story of an ex-con that wants to go straight during his parole but is discriminated by the society, returning to the crime. The fate of Cliff Taylor is predictable. The greatest attractions are probably William Holden very young is his second credited role and Humphrey Bogart in a support role. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available on Blu-Ray or DVD.

Invisible Stripes (1939)

Both a crime movie and a message movie, a Warner Bros. look at two convicts released at the same time each trying to go back to some life outside of jail. It's interesting, and well done of course (it's 1939 after all), and stars George Raft who holds his own in his stiff, sincere way. More curious for sure is the secondary role by the up and coming Humphrey Bogart, still a couple years from his breakthrough movies. And then maybe most astonishing to see is a very young William Holden (I didn't even recognize him) in his second credited role.

It's Raft who plays the good guy, almost too good to believe for a guy who did years of jail time, but the idea is that he's learned his lesson and he's going straight. Even with his edgy little brother itching to be a criminal himself. They have for a mom the dependable Flora Robson who is filled with such worldly pathos you can't help but feel for her. The girlfriend here is the really convincing Jane Bryan, who had a short career with mostly stereotyped roles but she exudes true innocent sweetness on screen (she appeared in lots of great Warner films of the late thirties, including "Each Dawn I Die).

And Bogart here plays the bad guy, the ex-con who is going to jump right into his old ways. We don't see much of him for most of the movie, except a couple scenes to show his girlfriend with hair of "gold" and his crooked gang of friends. But of course the two worlds—nice family with two troubled sons and loner man with his thugs—re- collide. Temptations of easy money, a seeming sense of poverty, and several kinds of loyalty (to a brother, to a friend, to a lover) all play together there and the last half of the movie is top notch stuff.

The message part of the movie is simple but important, and as usual has Warner Bros pointing to some problems in society from a generally liberal point of view. That is, an ex-con deserves an honest shake because the system is stacked against him. It works. When the sign lights up at the end and it says "bros" up there (just like Warner Bros), you feel all the ramifications of that built up through the story.

There are enough clichés here, and few little moments that seem a bit rushed or choppy (including the sudden change in attitude of the Holden character) you might not find this to be a classic. But it's really good. See it!

George Raft and Humphrey Bogart play two parolees who take different paths when they leave prison. Bogie immediately goes back to a life of crime while Raft tries to go straight. But fearing that his younger brother (a baby-faced William Holden) might follow in his footsteps if he can't get a break, Raft turns back to a life of crime.

Solid gangster picture from WB with a good cast. George Raft doesn't always get respect but he shows in this and other films that he was a decent actor. Young William Holden is a little melodramatic here. He still had room to improve. Lovely Jane Bryan is his girlfriend. This was the penultimate movie in her all-too-brief career. Humphrey Bogart plays yet another of his many gangster roles. He may not have been enjoying playing these parts much at this point of his career but he really was perfectly suited for them. He really steals the film from his co-stars. Flora Robson, Paul Kelly, and Henry O'Neill are among the other fine actors in the cast. Leo Gorcey has a small but amusing part. WB had such a strong stable of talent in their crime dramas of the '30s and '40s.

This is in many ways a predictable movie for WB that follows a formula I've seen in many gangster movies. The actors play roles they're very comfortable with, most of them having played similar parts before. But that doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. It's very enjoyable for someone like me, who likes not only the genre but the specific way Warner produced these films at the time. They were the go-to studio for urban dramas then and they made many classics that defined these types of stories to this day. This is a good one most fans of Bogart, Raft, and old gangster flicks will like.