Hide-Out

More than one movie was been made about a crook (or crooks in the case of couples) who leaves the city (usually, it's the Big Apple of New York) to go into hiding in a rural area. I've seen a few of them, and all but one that I can recall were comedy mysteries or crime pictures. Well, "Hide-Out" is an early one that stars Robert Montgomery and Maureen O'Sullivan, with a very large supporting cast.

Montgomery plays a sleezy, cocky, Jonathan "Lucky" Wilson. The cockiness fits Montgomery's normal film persona -- a smugginess in his constant quirky smile. It's a good story and film. While Wilson's conversion or change isn't quite believable, the performances by O'Sullivan as Pauline Miller, and those of the rest of her family and other supporting cast boost this film. Mickey Rooney is very good in this early role of his career as Pauline's youngest brother, Wiliam, who can't stand being called "Willie."

Old-time movie buffs and those interested in silver screen history will note and enjoy the roles of some of the great stock actors of mystery comedies. Here, Edward Brophy plays Detective Britt, Douglass Dumbrille plays nightclub owner DeSalle, and the dastardly appearing Henry Gordon plays The Boss, Tony Berrelli. Other comedy supporters are here as well, and do a good job - Herman Bing as Jake and Henry Armetta as Shuman.

Edward Arnold is one of the great supporting actors of Hollywood's golden era who never so much as received a nomination for any awards. Yet he could act in any genre, with a variety of characters and personas, and seem more natural in each role than anyone else. Arnold was superb in some great comedies and dramas. And, he could play mean and bad guys who came across tough as nails. Here he's a good guy, police detective and Lt. Mac MacCarthy who is hot on the trail of Wilson, his boss Berrelli, and the gang.

This is an enjoyable film, but younger modern audiences who have been brought up on fast action and speed in everything may not be able to slow down enough to enjoy it.

This is a very enjoyable though predictable film--exactly the sort of classic Hollywood film I like and they just don't make any more. The first portion of the film shows leading man Robert Montgomery to be a real jerk. Not only is he a mobster, but he's also completely selfish and a real cad. Eventually, though, his larcenous ways nearly get him killed and he is forced to escape to the countryside to avoid the law and heal following being shot by police in his escape.

Montgomery is discovered by a nice and unsuspecting family who have no idea he's a crook. They sweetly agree to let him stay there and they treat him like a member of the family. While the dad is a pretty forgettable but nice character, long-time character actress Elizabeth Patterson does an amazingly effective job as the mother and Mickey Rooney is cute as a nice little boy who is all boy! The sister was played by a young Maureen O'Sullivan who is simply radiant. It isn't surprising that Montgomery soon falls for O'Sullivan, but her inherent decency and sweetness result in a change in the crook. Over time, he realizes for the first time that he truly cares about her--as well as the entire family. Is this predictable? Sure,...but it's handled so well and the film is so engaging that you probably won't mind--I know I sure didn't! Overall, the film gets very high marks for acting (with a great ensemble cast), a well-written script (especially the dialog) and is just plain entertaining. See this one--you probably won't be sorry.

About handsome, smartly-dressed "Lucky" Wilson (played by Robert Montgomery), ladies' man and racketeer who spends his time hitting up successful New York nightclubs for "protection" money and at the same time hits on every blonde he sees (even when it means dumping the current blonde he's with). When a couple of smart cops get someone to spill the beans on his rackets, Lucky is forced to leave town in a hurry and head for a hideout, but he gets himself shot on the way out and ends up getting picked up on the road by a Connecticut farmer, who bunks injured Lucky in his quite lovely family home/farm. The kindly family proceeds to nurse Lucky back to health, but Lucky just wants to get out of there - until he meets the farmer's beautiful daughter Pauline (Maureen O'Sullivan). Soon he's feeding the chickens, milking the cow, picking cherries, chopping wood, and performing other farm chores (all dressed in his nice white shirt and jacket) all in pursuit of the girl. And the family has NO clue that Lucky is a criminal!

Very entertaining film, with excellent performances by all including Elizabeth Patterson as the charitable farm wife/mom, and a young Mickey Rooney as the boisterous little brother/devoted rabbit farmer. Robert Montgomery is, as usual, charming and oh so attractive, and quite good at playing this gangster type role in addition to his usual roving playboy type - plus he has a good deal of chemistry with Maureen O'Sullivan here. I enjoyed the story in this and found the whole film to be very enjoyable. Well worth seeing.

This sentimental M-G-M "gangster" film works like a "Tarzan" in reverse: here the seemingly incorrigible hood played by Montgomery, urbane and a touch cynical, finds his cold heart surely melting in the warm embrace of a simple farm family and their soothing workaday life.

In "Tarzan" Maureen O'Sullivan is the "outsider", and although she must adjust to life in the jungle the thrust of that story is that she "domesticates" the "ape man" even as she learns to accept the simpler pleasures of living "close to nature". Here Montgomery is the one out of his element and we find him mystified by the sounds of crickets in the evening--something almost as strange and foreign to him as the unpretentious caring ways of the Miller family. When Mom and Pop and little "don't call me" Willy (played by young Mickey Rooney) conveniently leave the farm for a day, Montgomery and O'Sullivan get to play "farm" (baling the hay, splitting wood) the same way Tarzan and Jane get to play "house" together. In both cases O'Sullivan has "tamed" the wild beast.

"Tarzan" was an adventure film, however--the journey takes place in the great outdoors and nature is a mirror. "Hide-out" is an inner journey, on the other hand--even as he's hauled off to prison Montgomery smiles because he's finally come "home".

It's a modest movie. Not a big deal. But it's got some things in it I like. First, it stars Robert Montgomery, and Maureen O'Sullivan, which though not a guarantee of a good movie, sure is a sign of promise. And in this case it pays off. Montgomery plays a racketeer who has to lam it to the countryside to wait for some heat to die down. The odd thing is, I could not really figure out what his "racket" was. There he is injured and stays with a family to recover, meeting and chumming it with the daughter. That's where the dividing line is. In the first part you are in precode gangster land. Then Montgomery wakes up in a four poster bed with a gingham bedspread - he has arrived in production code land. The plot's flimsy, for sure, on both sides of the line, but it's there to provide the opportunity for Montgomery and O'Sullivan to meet and chatter. And that's the main attraction. The banter between the simple, ingenuous, yet clear-headed and no-nonsense country lass, and the sophisticated, jaded, out-of-his-element city feller, as they get to know each other, like each other, and fall in love. The style of their exchanges has an informal, conversational feel, as if they were talking, not reciting lines.

Of course, the love story is accompanied by his character reformation into a good person, or one that looks to be in the future. But it's handled discretely, and if you ignore it, it doesn't spoil things. The supporting cast is a bunch of pros, so they know how not to step on things: Elizabeth Patterson and Whitford Kane as the ma and pa, Mickey Rooney-for once not insufferably irritating playing an insufferably irritating son, and Edward Arnold as the dogged cop. One other thing I like about the movie is that it achieves portraying a lively, energetic, spontaneous family scene without being noisy, discordant, and irritating. Something a lot of movies attempt, but fail miserably at doing.