Although I can't find out much information about this extraordinary film, Edward G. Robinson gives, probably, his greatest performance. "Two Seconds" - the amount of time it takes, when, strapped to the electric chair, the current runs through your body till you are pronounced clinically dead - and your whole life is supposed to flash before your eyes - was originally a Broadway play with a short run in 1931. Preston Foster created such an impression as likable Bud Clark, that he was asked to re-create his role in the movie opposite Edward G. Robinson.
The story is told in flashback as John Allen (E.G.R), a bewildered man sentenced to death for murder, reviews his life. He was a riveter, who shares digs with his lively pal, Bud (Preston Foster). Bud always has something on the go, whether it is betting on the ponies, dames or just a high old time. John is more thoughtful, he wants knowledge and would like a girl, who, like him, wants to better herself and yearns for the higher things in life. He knows he is not going to get that with the kind of blind dates Bud keeps finding for him - "firemen's girls" (whatever that means)!!!
After being assured by Bud that this time his date will be special and seeing that she is anything but, John hides out in a dance hall and makes the acquaintance of Shirley Day (Vivienne Osbourne), a dance hall girl who seems to have the same aspirations as he. But the lines she is spinning him - invalid parents in the country, wanting to go to night school - are as false as she is. She is as tough as they make 'em and one night when John thinks they are going to a lecture, she entices him to a club, gets him drunk, slips the minister a ten spot and proceeds to marry him - even though it is clear he doesn't know where he is!!! Once they are married she reveals her true self and John's mental state declines. After giving John a piece of his mind, Bud (who sized Shirley up from the start) slips off a girder and falls to his death. John disintegrates mentally as he realises that Bud was right about Shirley and, of course, blames himself for his pal's death.
Vivienne Osbourne gives a powerful performance (she almost matches Robinson) as Shirley, in the Wynne Gibson vein. I knew her name but nothing else about her and at the end of the film I was really wondering why she wasn't better known. She had a few scenes where she gave every emotion she had - in her first scene she really did convey an earnestness and a willingness to learn with John - but something just didn't add up!!! Robinson, though, keeps you on the edge of your seat as he finally "wises up" to Shirley. Being a pre-code film there is only one way she could afford her glamorous clothes and furs - and it's not by taking in washing!! A chance win on the ponies sends John on a collision course with fate, as he tallies up his debts. The final scene as John argues why he shouldn't be put to death now, now he has reclaimed his manhood will have you gripped by his intensity. How Edward G. Robinson was overlooked for an Academy Award is just astonishing.
Also of interest is J. Carroll Naish in an early but memorable role as Tony, dance hall manager and Shirley's partner in crime. Guy Kibbee for once not playing a dithering fool but a sharp bookie who can sense that John's mental state is not quite right. Adrienne Dore also has an uncredited bit as Bud's girl, Annie.
Highly, Highly Recommended.
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