The Guilty Generation (1931)

Directed by Rowland V. Lee
Starring Leo Carrillo, Constance Cummings, Robert Young
Produced by Columbia Pictures Corporation

John Smith is an up and coming architect. He has great friends. He's just been hired to build a hotel in Florida. He only has one small problem...

His name isn't John Smith. It's Marco Ricca. And Marco is the son of Tony Ricca, a prominent mob boss engaged in a war with Mike Palmiero and his clan.

Shortly after arriving in Florida, Smith ends up at a Palmiero party and meets the fetching Maria, Mike's daughter. Being the children of rival gangsters, the two immediately fall in love.

Mike is a protective father who begins sniffing out Maria's new beau.  Can the couple end their families' hatred? Or will they become victims of the violence?



The Guilty Generation is not at all what I was expecting.

On its face, the movie is a Romeo and Juliet tale set against the backdrop of the Italian mafia with a supporting turn from Boris Karloff as the head of the Ricca clan.

However, about 20 minutes in, a strange thing happens. Leo Carrillo appears on the screen as Mike Palmiero and, scene by scene, he takes the film over. We spend more time with him worrying over his daughter and this stranger that's come into her life than we do with couple. And when the lovers do get together, their single-minded focus becomes how Mike will respond when they elope.

It's always odd to watch the film recalibrate itself from a film about star-crossed lovers to a film about an enraged father. That said, I think it works. Carrillo is so good here as the bad guy that we want to spend time with him. He claims to want to end his gang war, but it is clear he wants to do it on his terms. Only if Ricca loses more than him is he willing to call a truce. In the end, we want to see which code of honor means more to him: that of a father or that of a kingpin.

Which is ultimately where the movie falters. The tension in the film is all about when Smith will be discovered as a Ricca and how Mike will react. You'd think it could go one of two ways (he either kills Marco or lets his daughter be happy). Instead, the film ties everything up through a third option which manages to be both random and unearned.

Despite a clunky love story and a shoddy climax, Carrillo gives me enough to recommend The Guilty Generation. But just barely.

 *** out of *****

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Rewatching Frankenstein (1931)

Directed by James Whale

Starring Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff 

Produced by Universal Pictures

A brilliant scientist allows his intelligence and ego to drive him to the brink of sanity as he plays god and creates a new living being from stitched together dead bodies. His creation at first seems innocent and childlike, but lashes out when threatened by fire. Can the scientist bring himself to destroy his creation? 

I honestly hesitated to bother with even a capsule recap of this one. The story of the monster and his creator is such a cultural touchstone that most people do not even realize the significant deviations this takes from the book. When you say "Frankenstein," nine out of ten people are going to picture this depiction.

Frankenstein as directed by James Whale is all about its visuals. Boris Karloff's look for the creature has been copied many times in many films, but revisiting the original, you realize what a poor facsimile these other versions really are. Sure, there are the flat head and the neck bolts, but Karloff's eyes are the key to the character here. Those droopy eyelids seem unthinking and dull, but then the windows open and the sunlight fills his face and those eyes glimmer with just a small amount of life. He brings a restrained humanity to the creature, which makes what happens to him all the more tragic.

No sooner do we see the monster's ecstasy from simply being bathed in sunlight, then we see his absolute terror when confronted with the flame of a torch.  The doctor mistakes his creation's fear as an attack and confines him in a basement dungeon.  Frankenstein's assistant Fritz further antagonizes the monster with his torch and eventually is killed by the enraged creature.

As much as I love the tragedy of these early scenes, I feel like the movie sprints a little too much after this point.  It has some memorable moments, but they feel disjointed.  Frankenstein just leaves the creature so he can go off and get married.  The monster kills again and escapes.  It encounters a little girl, plays by the side of a river with her and then playfully tosses her in, not understanding she'll drown.  Then the monster is in Frankenstein's bride's bedroom.  

Geography and pace are sacrificed as the film sets up the pieces for the endgame.  Fortunately, Whale's distinctive visual style remains and Karloff embody the character in ways that never stoop to the cliche the creature has become in pop culture.

I want Frankenstein to be better.  There are script problems.  There are acting problems.  However, Karloff and the direction remain enough to consider this a classic.  A flawed classic, but a classic nonetheless.

**** out of ***** 

NOTE: This is the second version of the Frankenstein tale I've reviewed. Check out my thoughts on the 1910 version (which was also my first ever review on the site).

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The Bells (1926)

Directed by James Young

Starring Lionel Barrymore, Caroline Frances Cooke, and Gustav von Seyffertitz

Produced by Chadwick Pictures Corporation 

Mathias and his wife Catharine run an inn and a mill together.  They both have their ambitions.  Catharine wants to succeed as an innkeeper and is mindful of ensuring that their patrons pay for the drink.  Mathias however wants to be the town Burgomaster and if he needs to ply the townspeople with alcohol on credit that never gets paid, so be it.



The problem with Mathias' approach is that they owe the local banker for the money they used to purchase their businesses.  And Mathias' approach to the balance sheet has had an unfortunate impact on the balance sheet.



Enter a traveling merchant.  Not just any merchant, but one with a heavy money belt.  He relaxes at the inn for an hour, but Mathias sees an opportunity.  He sets off after the man and with a swing of an axe, the innkeeper's money troubles are over.



He pays off the inn and the mill.  He even has a nice dowry for his daughter to marry the local lawman.  And Mathias becomes the Burgomaster.



If only that were the end of things.  The murder has been discovered and the merchant's brother arrives in town demanding justice.  For help, the victim's kin has hired a mesmerist to ascertain the guilty party.  As Burgomaster, Mathias must lead an investigation.  Meanwhile, he is haunted by the ghost of his victim and the sounds of the man's sleigh bells.



Will Mathias be discovered?  Or will the madness of his crime consume him?



The Bells has a fantastic central concept in an ambitious innkeeper being haunted by his crime.  It also has actors that make one prepare for greatness: Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff.



If only the script was worthy of the effort.



There is certainly some good stuff here.  For most of the film, Barrymore plays Mathias' descent into madness in a relatively understated way.  He never really flies off the handle.  It's all wild-eyed stares and disheveled hair.  He both has the weight of his guilt hanging over him and conceals his crime from the town.  Barrymore is certainly up to the task of playing a virtuous man whose ambition leads him into some bad choices.



But the way this plays out is baffling.  A merchant is murdered and the next day Mathias is rich.  The local constable points out that the victim's body can't be found and that it was likely burned in a lime kiln; Mathias points out that he has lime kilns.  He tries to put off the investigation by pointing out the scandal that a murder would bring to the town.  It does not take a Law & Order junkie to figure out the murderer.



Karloff gets top billing today, but in truth he is barely in it.  He glowers menacingly and smiles menacingly and performs all other manner of human movement menacingly, but he exists only to provide Mathias the threat of being discovered.



There is some interesting effects work here.  The way the bells hover over Mathias.  The ghostly hand that appears and then reveals a full ghost.  But the tone is never right.  It never feels dark or foreboding enough.  There's no real terror at the hauntings and the plot depends on those moments being dreadful.



SPOILERS AHEAD.  And then there is the ending.  Mathias is visited by the ghost again, but the murderer repents his sin and is forgiven by the dead man.  At peace at last, Mathias sees a halo develop around the religious shrine in his room and he dies.  It feels like the movie just ends.  Like it lost all of its steam and petered out.  The buildup of the movie was the threat the mesmerist posed to Mathias world order and that never really comes to fruition.



In the end, The Bells is a tale we have seen a million times.  It may be one of the first, but it's only a half-baked attempt.  It never decides what story it's telling and elements flit in and out without resolution.  There are great moments, but they do not add up to a whole film.



** out of *****

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