This pre-Code film gets off to a rough start, relying as it does on the repeated shtick of a drunk character that quickly gets tedious. If you can bear with it, it eventually develops into a nice little combination of the romance and heist genres, 1932-style. It also gets in a nice little dose of cynicism about the economic system that had failed, something that was so topical during the Depression, which had completed its third full year when the film was released.
Whenever Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett are on the screen together, flirting and bantering, this film is on the right track. She's so cute as the typical 1930's smart-talking woman who knows the score, giving him a wink, strutting across the room in his hat before bending over and shaking her booty to a song on the radio, or striking a match for him on her behind. He's of the same mold, a cop who openly pinches fruit in the market and lets two kids fight it out instead of separating them, but at the same time, clearly a decent guy, saving a dog from being drowned because its owner can no longer feed it, and jumping into the water himself to save the drunk from drowning.
I loved the reference to the film Strange Interlude, released five months earlier, which Tracy's character humorously thinks might have been titled Strange Innertube followed by us hearing each of their thoughts, which was that film's gimmick.
Tracy: "I bet you don't even take a drink, do ya?"
Bennett (aloud): "Only when I have a cold."
Bennett (thinking): "Hope he didn't get a whiff of my breath at Kate's wedding."
Tracy: "Hey, uh, I bet you never been kissed either, have ya?"
Bennett (aloud): "'Course not."
Bennett (thinking): "Hope he didn't hear about the fireman's picnic."
When he tries to put the moves on her it's a little creepy, but he leaves when she says no, and then her character is allowed to say this when they reconcile: "Girl don't know how to treat a fella either. If she lets him maul her, he thinks she's no good. And if she doesn't, he thinks she's old-fashioned." Overall Bennett's character is strong, non-traditional, and empowered, an aspect of pre-Code films I love to see.
The crime story is not the best, but it had its moments. It was fascinating to see a convict escaping prison by attaching himself to the bottom of a car (what a nice stunt!), and I liked the touch of the quadriplegic character signaling danger by using Morse code with his eyes. It was even nicer to see the way Tracy's character talked to him at the end, acknowledging him as person like anyone else, something not often scene in films from this period, or any other for that matter.
The film is by no means a masterpiece but the Depression references pushed it over the top for me. There are some obvious things like the man who's beside himself with grief because he can no longer feed his dog and thinks it's better to drown him, or the wedding scene which is emblematic of the era's food porn, with people literally scarfing down their food and alcohol. There were also two exchanges based on people reading the newspaper in front of Tracy's character.
The first is this:
(reading newspaper): "Mr. Brisbane says that the capitalistic Depression spasm is only a slight chill."
"He does, huh? Ah, those politicians are all alike. They're all of them crooks."
It's perhaps a reference to Arthur Brisbane, who, while not a politician, was a well-known newspaper editor and orator who worked for William Randolph Hearst.
And the second is this, which must have perfectly summarized the feelings of Americans who had lost their life savings when banks failed:
(reading newspaper) "This is a hot one. Another bank robbery."
"Yeah, who'd the bank rob this time?"
"No one. This time the bank was robbed."
"Ah, they were double-crossed, huh? Gettin' a little dose of their own medicine."
...and that's the cop, the guy upholding the law, saying that.
