Dark Hazard

Edward G. Robinson gives an excellent performance in "Dark Hazard" from 1934.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Dark Hazard was a dog!

Jim "Buck" Turner (Robinson) is a compulsive gambler, winning $20,000 at the track and losing $20,000 gambling. It's so bad he has to borrow $5 to get home.

He winds up taking a room in a boarding house, where he meets Marge (Genevieve Turner) and falls in love with her. Though her mother doesn't approve, they get married.

Marge is unhappy about his gambling, and Jim keeps saying he'll stop. He doesn't. One day, he runs into an old girlfriend, Valerie (Glenda Farrell) - she'd like to start up again, but he wants to be faithful to Marge. Later on she's there in down times.

Jim becomes enamored of dog racing and wants to buy a dog named Dark Hazard. But he costs $5,000.

When he wins big and brings home a huge amount of money, Marge, who is pregnant, leaves him and takes all the money. She writes that when he's ready, she will have a place for him.

A few years later, he returns to Marge, who is living with her mother, and meets his little boy. She takes him back though she is dating an old beau, Pres.

The next time he sees the dog, he's broken his leg and about to be put down. Jim buys him for $25. Once the dog is well, he starts winning again.

Many pre-code elements, including a double bed.

You can't help but like Jim and feel sorry for him at times. But you also know he's a survivor, just like Dark Hazard.

Sidney Toler, famous as Charlie Chan, is very good as a guy who gets Robinson to gamble again.

I have to say the dog racing theme was a gigantic turnoff. It's a bad sport, with thousands of greyhounds abandoned every year when their usefulness has ended.

In this movie, the original owner loved the dog; later it's obvious he no longer cares about him. That isn't typical - to these people, the dogs are just moneymakers to them from the beginning.

Other than that, this was a decent film. Was remade by Warners later as Wine, Women, and Horses.