You Can't Get Away with Murder

You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939)

From the peak of classic pre-war Hollywood and "Gone with the Wind," anticipating the equally classic and more slick "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca" in the next three years. And just before star Humphrey Bogart has his breakout in "The Maltese Falcon" in 1941. Things hang a little undecided here, a classic crime drama a removed from the early 30s Warner Bros. masterpieces, but unpolished for its time, too. Blame a modest budget.

But then again, this is rather good on its own terms, a standard gangster story with a message. And Bogart is strong, a bit more developed than his earlier gangster roles where he's a bit of stereotype. Bits of dry humor and disdain creep in, welcome Bogart touches. The main twist here is a sweet young man, really just a kid, gets involved. And how. Note the title.

The writing isn't always great, sometimes falling into cheap dramatic comments without surprise, or even avoiding basic believability. The action parts are good and well filmed (and they avoid unnecessary dialog). Some of the side characters are just filling roles without depth, or are clichés (the African-American reading the cookbook— charming and fun, or the good-hearted librarian in prison). Even the kid isn't quite right, as if he's playing what he thinks he should instead of inhabiting the role.

Bogart, however, is a whole different class of actor in all of this, and he's the reason to watch. The last twenty minutes click along really nicely. Not an awful film in all, but be prepared for some routine stuff between the highlights.

I've always loved this movie a lot. I'm a Bogie fan and a Billy Halop fan, too, so this movie really interests me.

Halop should have gone on to stardom, as he had the looks and charisma to make it. I don't know what went wrong, but this film is a good indication of his growing acting ability.

It's also a step in the right direction towards breaking Halop away from his silly juvenile roles. He could easily play more sinister, dark roles, and this movie proves it.

The ending could have glossed over the Halop-Bogie clash, but didn't, and I like that.

It's a well-made little gangster film that deserves much better accolades.

One of those fun urban crime dramas that Warner Bros. excelled at in the 1930s. This one stars Humphrey Bogart as a crook who corrupts teenage street tough Billy Halop (sans the rest of the Dead End Kids) into committing armed robbery and framing Halop's sister's boyfriend for murder. Soon Bogie and Halop are arrested and sent to prison together while the boyfriend (dull Harvey Stephens) faces possible execution for a crime he didn't commit.

Bogart is fine in a role he could play in his sleep but he doesn't get as much to do as Halop, who WB clearly had high hopes for. Halop is alright when he's playing to his Dead End Kids persona but when he gets melodramatic, the result is over the top. Great character actors like Henry Travers, Harold Huber, John Litel, Joseph Crehan, and Joe Sawyer add color to the cast and liven things up. Travers is especially good. Lovely Gale Page plays Halop's sister and gives a sympathetic turn. It's not one of the better examples from this genre but I doubt many fans will complain about it or feel like it's time wasted.

Before superstardom Humphrey Bogart took many of these "mugg" parts before exploding on the scene in "High Sierra". In this film Bogart plays a small time hood named Frank Wilson whom is followed by Johnny {aka Leader of the Dead End Kids featured in other early Bogart movies}. Johnny is a teenager heading down the wrong path and gets into big trouble when Frank murders someone at a botched heist job. The real trouble for Johnny is that Frank frames the murder on someone near and dear to Johnny. The two hoods end up in prison after accepting charges on another crime to beat the murder rap. While at Sing Sing prison the guilt starts to get to Johnny and Frank doesn't like it. Will Bogie get away with murder? Not a classic movie by any stretch, but worth checking out, especially Bogart fans.

"You Can't Get Away with Murder" is a 1939 film starring Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Billy Halop, Henry Travers, John Litel, and Harvey Stephens. Bogart is still on his way up the star ladder - in his case, it was a long climb to 1941's "High Sierra" with lots of supporting parts, mostly as gangsters. Here he's the star, but this isn't a big film.

It is, however, a tense one with good performances. Bogart plays the meaner than dirt Frank Wilson, a criminal who takes advantage of the young, trusting Johnny Stone (Halop), a basically good kid being raised by his sister Madge. She becomes engaged to Fred, a cop who is being transferred to a better job in Boston. He plans on marrying Madge and bringing Johnny with them to Boston, where he's lined up work for him. But when a botched robbery leads to Frank committing murder, he frames Fred for it. Fred winds up on death row while Johnny and Frank serve sentences for another crime. Frank is afraid Johnny will rat him out in order to save Fred.

Bogart does a great job as Frank - he's easy to hate. Billy Halop for me was a bit overdone as Johnny, but he really kept you guessing as to what he would do. Halop was one of the Dead End Kids who sought a career on his own. He was mainly in B movies and finally in small parts, eventually seguing into television. He also worked as a salesman and, at the end of his life, a male nurse. Beset with marital, alcohol, and financial problems, he died at the age of 56.

It's impressive to look at Bogart's pre-stardom career and see how long it took him to break away from the pack - 11 years and 42 films. Well, he was certainly worth waiting for.