This Day and Age

Gangster Charles Bickford shoots and kills tailor Harry Green in front of a high-school witness, but the rules of evidence confound justice. The kids at the high school are upset; Green was a popular fellow. Realizing that the law as practiced in the courts is no match for gangsters, they decide on a plan to kidnap him and hold a trial of their own, even if it requires getting the truth out of him by strangling him with a hanging rope, or allowing Bickford's henchman, Bradley Page, to rape Judith Allen to distract him from rescuing his boss.

There's little doubt that director Cecil B. Demille took Fritz Lang's M and converted it into a melodrama of youth pushed beyond endurance. In doing so, he has created a movie that is in favor of that fine old American tradition, lynching. Demille and screenwriter Bartlett Cormack have stacked all the evidence on the lynch mob's side, and made them handsome and well-groomed young Americans of every background, one devoid of every irony of Lang's movie.

I have seen two or three other pre-code movies which come down on the side of lynch mobs, but never an A picture directed by that director of epics of every type. It's an astonishing work.

1933's "This Day and Age" was certainly an unusual choice for director Cecil B. DeMille, a modern tale of vigilante justice sandwiched between more typical historical assignments such as "The Sign of the Cross" and "Cleopatra." Charles Bickford gets top billing as Louis Garrett, a ruthless gangster well known to authorities, due to his ability to beat the rap every time. After he murders an elderly Jewish tailor much loved at the local high school, then putting a neat frame on an innocent student, the entire student body bands together in an intricate plot to gain a rock solid confession. First, lovely Gay Merrick (Judith Allen) must use her seductive wiles to distract Garrett's number one bodyguard (Bradley Page), while the others kidnap his boss, tie him up, and hold him prisoner over a pit filled with rats! (one wonders how they discovered this weakness, but it's not important). Most of the featured youngsters didn't enjoy successful careers, while certain uncredited ones remained quite busy over the decades, especially Donald Barry and Sidney Miller. Richard Cromwell's career reached a high point here, while Judith Allen went on to play W. C. Fields' daughter in "The Old-Fashioned Way" (reduced to bit parts by 1940). The most interesting billing goes to 'John Peter Richmond,' who would soon permanently change his name to 'John Carradine,' seen (with moustache) only in the opening moments as Assistant Principal Abernathy, who simply announces the names of our most prominent students (this was the only time in the three years he used that name that he was actually billed on screen, 22nd out of 23 players listed). Carradine actually debuted with Richard Cromwell in 1930's "Tol'able David," where he was listed as 'Peter Richmond'; his birth name was 'Richmond Reed Carradine,' but for some reason his mother always called him 'Peter!' Apart from 1956's "The Ten Commandments" (DeMille's last film), Carradine's early work for the director included voiceovers and bits in "The Sign of the Cross," "Cleopatra," and "The Crusades." Other similar efforts from the early 30s included "The Cat's-Paw," where mayor Harold Lloyd conquers big city corruption, and especially "Gabriel Over the White House," where the President himself (Walter Huston) takes the law into his own hands.

Great performance from Charles Bickford, and a cameo appearance by John Carradine at the beginning of the film with a moustache. Apart from seeing how student power can make things work, I didn't think much of the characters. It doesn't mean that the acting wasn't any good, it's just that the writing of the characters lacked substance. Because Bickford would go on to appear in 'Tarzan's New York Adventure' and 'Reap the Wild Wind' in the same year, this film is significant because Cecil B. DeMille could draw out a performance from Bickford that would set him on the road to antagonistic characters. This film isn't story led, it is performance led. You learn nothing from the story, but it is a good calling card for Bickford and indeed Carradine.

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** A Cecil B. DeMille film that no one remembers? You bet, and this is it! Still under copyright to Paramount Studios this film is not technically available commercially but luckily there is a print at the Library Of Congress and they'll be happy to screen it for you if you make an appointment with them some 2 weeks in advance (see what I go through to write these things!) Originally I wanted to see this because it is one of John Carradine's earliest roles and some reference books list him as being the "graduating class valedictorian". I found that amazing because in 1933 Long John was about 27 and to see him play a high school student really piqued my curiosity. Well it turns out he plays Mr. Abernathy, the assistant principal and he gets billed as "John Peter Richmond". It is by no means his only DeMille movie, he is heard but not seen in SIGN OF THE CROSS (1932) and THE CRUSADES (1933) and you can spot him if you look quickly in CLEOPATRA (1934). Now as to the movie itself. The story takes place in Smalltown, USA where the local tailor is idolised by the school kids. When the nice old man is murdered on orders from the local gang boss (Charles Bickford) the kids find clues the cops overlooked but the man is acquitted anyway for lack of evidence. Knowing he is guilty the kids appeal to the adults in charge but all they get is one lecture after another about how they don't understand the adult world and how they will learn for themselves when they take their place in the real world. (I fully expected one of the old fogey's to say "Tut tut my boy." but no one does, thank goodness.) When the kids try to get the goods on the man themselves they only succeed in getting one of their group framed on a charge of attempted murder. This pushes the clean cut kids over the edge and they decide real fast that since fighting clean does not work it's time to fight dirty.

WARNING WARNING! I have to talk about how the movie ends but it is vital that I do so to properly analyse this film. If you don't want to spoil it for yourself skip the next paragraph. If you want to learn more, by all means continue.

The kids from all the high schools work together to kidnap the gang boss. The local "good girl" pretends to be a trollop to distract the bosses right hand man so the boys can grab him. (Don't worry, she gets away before the lecherous gunsel can do anything to her!) Taking him to a construction site they resort to the sort of brutality usually used by the gangsters themselves. The gang boss is suspended by ropes over a pit of live, very hungry rats and slowly lowered into it until he confesses to the murder and the framing of the boy. His gang, however, shows up armed to the teeth and not about the hesitate machine gunning the kids if they don't release their boss. Luckily for once the cops arrive on time and this time there is enough evidence to put everyone away for a long time.

OKAY, ALL OF YOU WHO DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW HOW THE MOVIE ENDED CAN REJOIN US NOW.

Admittedly DeMille overdoes it a bit here. Carrying the trussed up gangster into town on a palate the kids sing a medley of patriotic songs and the sequence goes on a little too long, ultimately blunting the impact of the powerful scene preceeding it. This detraction is not enough to ruin the whole film though. Performances are very good. You'll spot Charles Middleton (2 years away from immortality as Ming The Merciless in FLASH GORDON) on the side of the law as a DA. Watch for character actors like Guy Usher (DEVIL BAT), Paul Hurst (ISLAND OF LOST SOULS) and Billy Gilbert in supporting roles. Yes, it is a hard film to find, but well worth all the effort.

Admittedly, as you'd expect from the maestro, it's well made, it looks good and compelling enough to keep you watching until the very end....you will however curse the great man for making you waste your time on this nonsense.

If you can imagine one of Zanuck's campaigning early thirties Warner Brothers movies remade as a Scooby Doo episode you'll have half an idea what this is like. Then to get an even better impression, imagine that Scooby Doo episode made not as a cartoon but by a bunch of precocious theatre school students saying 'Gee that's swell' every couple of minutes in an attempt to sound authentic.

Just as DeMille was one of the greatest directors of the era, Bartlett Cormack was one of the era's great screenwriters. Although they'd work very successfully together in the future their combined efforts here didn't quite click. It all seems too far fetched. Perhaps if the story had been set in Ancient Rome or on a surreal remote island it might have worked but because this was meant to be "now" in the actual real world, it comes across as theatrical, contrived and unrealistic.

Writer, Bartlett Cormack made his name exposing corruption and organised crime and for about ten minutes we're tantalised that we're going to get something special. After the tailor is murdered, we learn that because of 'the system' justice can't always be done, we think we're about to see a hard-hitting "we need to fix our society" picture. You think it's going to be a provocative indictment of a corrupt legal system, something to make your blood boil. Unfortunately what unfolds just makes you cringe.

Cagney's MAYOR OF HELL had a kind of similar simplistic theme but that didn't take itself too seriously so was fun. This tried to be too earnest which was a shame because deMille usually showed quite a sense of humour in most of his pictures.

It's not a bad film, it's actually quite entertaining, it's just that you'd expect more from Mr deMille (and it is of course better than the pompous, sanctimonious sexual frustration-drenched nonsense known as SIGN OF THE CROSS.) Everyone has an off-day - even Led Zeppelin made In Thru The Outdoor!