Escape by Night

When the film begins, a poor sap, Nick (William Hall) accidentally gets involved with a gang of crooks and folks think he's one of them. Soon he and the Regan gang are on the lam and they come up with a great idea---to hide out at a humble farm in the country. There something unusual happens...the crooks all come to love the simple country life and want to give up their wicked ways. Plus Nick and Jo (Steffi Duna) find love with two locals. The problem is that the leader of the gang, Capper Regan (Dean Jagger) isn't about to let any of them just retire.

This is a bad film in some ways. Steffi Duna can barely speak English and practically needed subtitles. Additionally, the finale is a bit silly. But, most importantly, I was able to set all that aside and enjoy the picture even if it was just a cheap B. Not bad overall and rather fun.

I want to be as kind as I possibly can with this film, as it had some elements I enjoyed. At the same time I cannot deny that it is just barely passable as entertainment. A definite low grade film, with a brisk pace, and a script that at times feels like it was being written while they were filming. Particularily towards the end, with its ridiculous jailbreak. The movies most interesting idea was having the gangsters (who are hiding out at a farm owned by an unsuspecting father and his daughter) fall in love with country life, which causes them to give up on crime. An unlikely scenario, but makes for an interesting storyline.

In the bleak light of 1937, this little gem was a complete Ray of Sunshine. All the hooks, all the cliches about "innate goodness" of man are used here and work marvelously.

Not wanting to see a dame manhandled, tough Pennsylvania miner William Hall (as Nicholas "Nick" Allen) assists street-walking Steffi Duna (as Josephine "Jo" Elliott) during a disagreement with gangsters. A resulting ruckus leaves Mr. Hall taking both Ms. Duna and a slug to the shoulder. Nursing his wound gets Hall involved with Duna's associates, a crime gang led by Dean Jagger (as James "Capper" Regan). Unluckily, they are "WANTED" for a recent murder. So, Hall is chased along with Mr. Jagger, Ward Bond (as Peter "Spudsy" Baker) and Murray Alper (as Horace "Red" Graham)...

The gang, with Hall providing some cover, takes refuge at what turns out to be an idyllic farm. They hide out there, with kindly blind Charles Waldron (as Pop Adams) and "Bill", his resourceful German Sheppard. The dog catches rabbits for the gang to eat, after thanking God. Hall finds romance with Mr. Waldron's pretty daughter Anne Nagel (as Linda). They enjoy sunbathing together. Living on the farm makes most of the criminal gang good. They reform into nice citizens. They resist a potential lucrative return to former criminal ways. But will the police understand, and forgive past sins?

**** Escape by Night (9/1/37) Hamilton MacFadden ~ William Hall, Anne Nagel, Dean Jagger, Steffi Duna

Escape By Night is a B film from a B picture studio Republic which may have lost something in the editing. I'd hate to think that something this bad could have been made deliberately.

Young William Hall being brought up as he was in small town Pennsylvania has been taught to go to a lady in distress which he does on his first day in the big city when gangster's moll Steffi Duna is being accosted. For his efforts Hall gets what they call in movies 'a flesh wound' and gets treated by the local mob doctor. Later on he takes it on the lam with the mob, why is still beyond me because he certainly hasn't done anything wrong.

In the getaway however mob leader Dean Jagger with a full head of hair kills a cop and he splits from the rest of the gang. So Hall, Duna, and henchmen Murray Alper and Ward Bond go into the country on their own.

A flat tire has them winding up at a farm owned by blind Charles Waldron and his daughter Anne Nagel and of course their German Shepherd guide dog, a relative no doubt of Rin Tin Tin. Nagel gives Hall reason enough to hang around. But Duna, Alper, and Bond actually take to country life and the relative peace and quiet and semi-seclusion from the law.

Of course it all catches up with them as it always does in these films. The cast does their best, but with a weak script and some impossible plot situations Escape By Night is not the best thing that ever came from Republic.

Maybe after this one, Herbert J. Yates decided to concentrate on westerns.