Nothing But the Truth

"Nothing But the Truth" (1929) is an early soundie with Richard Dix as a stockbroker who lies so much to sell his share of stocks in his company that he barely knows the meaning of truth. His partner, Berton Churchill, is also father to the woman Dix hopes to marry in the near future, Dorothy Hall. BUT - due to the fact that Churchill is invested by $100,000 in Quicksilver mine stocks and needs desperately to divest himself of such, the company is asked to help. Dix thinks the stock is garbage. Due to several incidents leading up to the plot driver, it comes about that a bet is now put upon Dix between him and Churchill, Ned Sparks, and Louis John Bartels, a bet of $10,000 that Dix can't tell the absolute, absolute truth for 24 straight hours! Of course, the $10,000 Dix bets actually belongs to Hall (Churchill's daughter, remember), though she's somewhat "borrowed" it in turn from a fund for an orphanage. It's getting too complicated to explain much further. This is somewhat stage-bound by today's standards, but I must say that this is really a very delightful old-fashioned farce, and Dix is definitely up to the challenge. It may be much more in the future Cary Grant's type of comedy, but Dix shows that he had much more acting chops than the rather over-ripe performance of two years later in "Cimarron" or even his nicely performed parts in "The Whistler" series. He'd done silent comedy before, and actually quite well, in such shows as "The Lucky Devil" and others, but he went out of silents with a roar in "Redskin" and into sound with plenty of oomph in 1929 with this film, "Seven Keys to Baldpate" and others.

Though Dorothy Hall plays the love foil in "Nothing But the Truth", it's actually Helen 'Babe' Kane and Wynne Gibson who are the featured ladies, playing a sister-pair who are in showbusiness and are looking for a backer, and who look to Churchill to back them - - - and this behind the back, so to speak, of Churchill's daughter, Hall, and wife, Madeline Grey. This all adds plenty to the complications already set afoot by the bet with Dix.

Genuinely a pleasant surprise and wonderful 78 minute watch. Recommended. Hopefully, someone will eventually release this in a decent, cleaned-up format.

For someone who rarely got a chance to do it during the sound era, Richard Dix gives a fine comic performance in the lead later performed by Bob Hope. Preston Foster is supposed to be in a bit part, but I couldn't spot him and Helen Kane is best taken in small doses. Ned Sparks is relatively restrained and Berton Churchill -- I've seen in about four times in the last month and am getting a bit weary of him -- is his usual emphatic, slimy self.

In the 1927-29 period, American movie studios were making the only sound pictures in the world. Because of this, there were no guidelines on how to make such pictures--just a lot of trial and error. For example, in most early sound pictures, the accompanying sound was NOT inserted into the strip of film which soon became the standard. And, adding music to films literally meant having a band immediately off-camera doing the music live! Another standard practice that they had to work out was making films too talking. After years of making silent films, too often studios had folks talk and talk and talk-- with very little action. Why? Well it wasn't only making up for lost time but because microphones needed to be VERY close to actors...and many times they stood practically still because of this. As a result, most films made during this era are pretty terrible when you see them today...and most were remade a lot better only a few years later. This is DEFINITELY true of "Nothing But the Truth"--a decent idea for a film but one that is severely hindered by primitive sound movie techniques. Folks talk way too much, the action a bit stilted AND Helen Kane's routine grew VERY tiresome very quickly. She was the inspiration for Betty Boop...which is fine in an 8 minute cartoon...but imagine a woman talking just like this character throughout a live-action movie! Now this in not saying the film is all bad. Star Richard Dix is more natural on camera than the other actors in the film...and it is very easy to understand how he was a big star in the early 1930s.

As to the movie, as I said above, it is very dated and doesn't work very well today. The story, while a bit hard to believe, is enjoyable and the film still worth seeing provided you are able to see it in context and cut it some slack! After all, the idea of a man making a bet he could ONLY tell the truth for 24 hours and how difficult this could be might make for a good film. Here, despite many problems, it's still a cute idea.

Richard Dix plays a stockbroker - and inveterate liar - who rashly accepts a wager that he must speak nothing but the truth for 24 hours. Naturally, complications quickly arise. The story is fanciful nonsense, but director Victor Schertzinger does manage to coax a likable performance from leading man Richard Dix. Unfortunately, the limitations of early-talkie camera movement and sound recording prove to be even more suffocating than the conditions of Dix's bet.

This film features excellent production values, a brisk pace, and natural performances in this first full year of talking pictures that is a rare jewel. It's also something even more valuable - a talking picture featuring the attitudes and all the excesses of the roaring 20's just months before the stock market crash. Technically, it would have been impossible to make such a film just a year before. A year later, a film such as this one - a comedy about lying stockbrokers - would have seemed ridiculous and likely angered the suffering depression era audiences, and thus it would not have been made in the first place.

Richard Dix stars as stock broker Robert Bennett working in a brokerage firm where the boss, E. M. Burke, postulates that lying is a necessary part of their business. He has to lie to sell stocks, he says, as long as he believes in the long run the stock is a good investment he believes it's OK. Dix says that one should always tell the truth. Since Bennett is given to some lying himself ,the other brokers in the office and the boss bet 10,000 dollars against Bennett's 10,000 dollars that Bennett cannot tell the absolute truth for 24 hours. What the boss and the other brokers don't know is that Burke's daughter and Bob's fiancée Gwen has visited Bob just minutes before and said that she has raised 10,000 dollars for charity and needs to double it in five days because if she does her father has said he will match it - this is the 10K that Bob is betting. Apparently a total of 40K is needed for what her charitable group is trying to accomplish. Realize in 1929 40K is roughly equivalent to half a million dollars in 2010. So, without knowing it, Mr. Burke has much more on the line than ten thousand dollars.

What follows is a briskly paced comedy as the brokers and the boss won't let Bennett out of their sight until 4PM the next day when the bet expires, waiting for him to tell that one bet-ending lie. Side plots include two gold-digging chorus girls who meet Burke and the brokers in a speak-easy that night and are determined to hold Burke to his promise to finance their idea for a show. They're not taking no for an answer. They seem to hold all the cards as they have managed to enter Burke's home and refuse to leave without the cash. Burke could refuse them and have them thrown out, but then he'd have to explain to his wife how he knew these two buxom chorines and what they were doing in their home. Meanwhile, as a guest in his future in-laws' home, Bob is faced with the torment of listening to the terrible singing of a female guest whose choice of haberdashery looks like a milk pail with a bow on it. Of course he's asked to give his opinion on both her hat and her singing.

I'd recommend this one to anybody who likes a good comedy. You don't even have to be a precode or early talkie fan to enjoy this one. A tolerance for a modest dose of Helen Kane (she plays one of the gold-digging chorus girls) is really all that's required. Honest, I'm telling the truth here.