There is something very John Barrymore-ish about Lowell Sherman, the middle-aged star of this movie who later played a Barrymore like star in "What Price Hollywood". It is ironic that in real life, they were once married to the Costello sisters and would co-star together in one movie, "General Crack". Sherman seems to be taking on a Barrymore persona here as the suave head of a racket of jewel thieves. He ain't no Ronald Colman of "Raffles" or William Powell of "Jewel Robbery", but a slightly portly lothario who seems to have forgotten that he's past the era of seducing young girls and taking them away from their same-aged boyfriends, which he attempts to do here with Marian Nixon and her fiancée, William Janney.
"If it wasn't for men like me, there wouldn't be a necessity for men like you", he tells a detective out to bust up his racket, and you know he's dead serious. Even if he runs a seemingly legitimate nightclub, frequented by the well-dressed social set, he's uncontent in his lot, and continues to knock off jewelry shops when the right moment comes along. Hugh Trevor is the handsome but rather amoral pal who goes too far in Sherman's eyes when he robs the struggling Janney right after Nixon has agreed to marry him. This puts Sherman into a sort of George Arliss style plot; He takes the down on their luck lovers into his home, yet plans to steal Nixon for himself until Trevor takes matters into his own hands to get revenge for being humiliated by being exposed for what he claims was just a practical joke.
Slightly creaky and extremely stagy, this early talkie crime drama with elements of drawing room comedy manages to entertain in spite of its constant shift in moods. It certainly isn't a rival to the big crime dramas of the time ("Little Cesar", "Public Enemy", "Scarface") yet isn't without merit. Sherman also directs this film which he would do for a few later films he starred in, which brings into question the man's ego, one seemingly as huge as Barrymore's yet without that unforgettable profile and over-sized personality.
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