Marian Marsh and Norman Foster are a couple of likable young kids in love whose path together turns rocky when an embezzling banker is apparently knocked off and chauffeur Foster is fingered for the crime. Amusingly complicated narrative peopled with a wild array of supporting characters (a wisecracking roommate, a shady blackmailer, a bleeding-heart lawyer, a stuttering auto-mechanic, an old maid landlady, etc.). Despite some overacting, this curious early talkie doesn't creak too much, and director Victor Schertzinger has a snappy sense of pacing and a good eye for details. It all leads to a nick-of-time climax, which is pulled off with aplomb. **1/2 from ****
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moonspinner5520 March 2008
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planktonrules3 November 2018"Strange Justice" is an early B-movie that is modestly entertaining. Like other Bs, it clocks in at about an hour and is brisk-paced...and, fortunately, the story is reasonably interesting and unusual. The resolution, however, seems a bit far-fetched and overall I'd put it in the 'time-passer' category.
Henry Judson (Reginald Denny) seems like a nice guy who likes the fancy life. However, later you learn that to afford this, he's been embezzling a fortune from the bank where he works. Oddly, however, when the boss discovers this he's NOT angry nor does he call the police...he demands Judson cut him in as well! Later, to hide Judson's indiscretions, the boss arranges to frame some poor sap. Is Judson such a horrible reprobate that he can allow this?
The story is interesting...though not exactly easy to believe. I mildly enjoyed it and feel most will probably feel like I did...it's not bad but it's certainly no must-see movie. -
jtyroler20 March 2008This movie was shown on Turner Classic Movies earlier. I recorded it, but couldn't remember why I had, but I'm glad I did. This was a pretty good movie - I wasn't that familiar with any of the actors (I had heard of Reginald Denny, but I wasn't familiar with his work as an actor).
Rose (Miriam Marsh) works as a hat check girl at a nightclub frequented by banker Henry I. Judson (Reginald Denny) and is engaged to ex-con Wally Baker (Norman Foster). Judson has been embezzling funds from his bank, a lot of funds. Assistant bank manager L.D. Waters (Irving Pichel) knows of this and demands half of the embezzled funds. Rose talks Judson into hiring Wally as his chauffeur. Wally catches Judson kissing Rose and Wally hits Judson and then threatens to kill Judson.
Wally "wins" $3000 in the lottery, or at least he thinks he does. Judson apologizes for his behavior with Rose, and, as a wedding present, gives Wally his ring. Wally rents a new apartment and buys quite a few things with his "winnings" for his future home with Rose. Their celebration is quickly ended when the police show up to question Wally about the death of Judson.
When Wally is being questioned by the police, he finds out that he didn't win any money from a lottery - the winning number(s) haven't been drawn yet. Wally who had Judson's ring at the time of his arrest, is found guilty of the murder of Judson and is sentenced to die in the electric chair at Sing Sing. Can Rose save Wally from the chair?
Yes, that's Walter Brennan working in the garage. -
AAdaSC12 November 2019Hat-check girl Marian Marsh (Rose) sets up her annoying boyfriend Norman Foster (Wally) with a job as a chauffeur for wealthy bank boss Reginald Denny (Judson). Foster is a whining simpleton who is impossible to relate to. Anyway, he gets the job but Denny also has designs on his girlfriend and she sort of encourages this a bit. She says "No" but stays behind with him, goes to parties with him - that sort of thing. Denny is also a crook who's been embezzling bank funds to keep up with his socialite lifestyle. This doesn't go unnoticed by his number two at the bank, Irving Pichel (Waters), who blackmails him. Uh-oh, a scheme is set which doesn't bode well for our simpleton chauffeur.
The plot and storyline are ok but Norman Foster is terrible and single-handedly brings this film down at least a couple of marks. I've just watched him in Skyscraper Souls (1932) where he plays a similar character. You can't possibly like this idiot. It's a tough ask. The story ends in a very predictable manner but as long as Foster isn't on screen, the film isn't too bad. -
whpratt123 March 2008This was a great classic film to view from 1933 and enjoyed the great acting ability of Marian Marsh, (Rose Abbott) who played the role as a very cute petite blonde gal who worked in a night club as a hat check girl. Rose while working in the night club met a socialite banker named Henry I. Judson, (Reginald Denny) who was very interested in her and even offered her boy friend a job as a chauffeur for himself. However, Henry has been embezzling funds from his bank and he is caught by his assistant, L.D. Waters, (Irving Pichel) who blackmails him into making a disappearing act which causes a great deal of trouble for Rose's boyfriend. The electric chair at Sing Sing Prison, Ossing, New York is the final solution to this strange outcome of justice and you will have to see this film to find out just what really happens. Great Classic film, enjoy.
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kidboots7 December 2011That's what Rose Abbott (Marian Marsh) calls high roller Henry Judson (Reginald Denny) - he is a banker who is fiddling the books to finance his extravagant lifestyle. It seems everything happens at night (clubs)!!! Firstly, one of his old friends, lawyer Kearney (Richard Bennett) is seeking a loan of $5,000 to collect vital evidence to save a young man from the electric chair, then hat check girl Rose bails him up to secure a driving job for her boyfriend Wally Baker (Norman Foster). Unfortunately the next morning Judson's past catches up with him - bank manager, dour Mr. Waters (Irving Pichel) has drawn up a statement to show just how much Judson has embezzled in six months - would you believe $480,000!!! As Waters, who is understandably bitter at the way he has done all the hard work while Judson has received all the glory, says "Once you have repaid it, feel free to steal more"!!!
But in this crazy movie good hearted Judson still finances Kearney his loan and Wally can still keep his driving job. Must be one of the few movies where a dapper embezzler is the hero and the real villain is a creepy, dishonest bank manager. In the early thirties though, with banks going bust and foreclosing on the "little people's" farms and homes, it wasn't such a stretch of the imagination. Irving Pichel before he turned to directing was surely the most under rated character actor of the early thirties. His Waters is bitter and twisted and will stop at nothing to see Judson and his friends get their comeuppance!!! He and his cronie, Smith (Thomas E. Jackson) plan an elaborate frame up in which Judson is killed in a horrendous car accident and Wally gets the blame. They see Wally buy a lottery ticket from Rose's persistent friend (Nydia Westman), Smith comes calling, posing as a lottery agent and convinces Wally that he has won $3,000 prize money - even though the lottery isn't drawn until the following week. It is all geared to pave the way to show Wally was given the money to bump Judson off!!! But what's this??? In a thrilling finale.....
Director Victor Schertzinger, who was more noted as a composer of popular songs, did a really good job of smoothing out what was a complicated and at times confusing story line - he also did the musical score as well. Poor Marian Marsh, once she was dropped by Warners, she started along the uncertain road of freelancing. And movies with titles like "Daring Daughters" and "Notorious But Nice" did not do her any favours. "Strange Justice" was one of the better ones. This is not to denigrate Miss Marsh - aside from being drop dead gorgeous, her performance in "Five Star Final" proved she had the talent to succeed. -
boblipton20 March 2008That's the role that Richard Bennett plays in this highly convoluted melodrama in which new husband Norman Foster -- who later went on to direct a large number of B pictures, including many of Fox's Charlie Chan Pictures-- is found guilty of killing Reginald Denny -- who's not dead. As the picture starts, Bennett is trying to borrow money from Denny to defend another client of his, who's facing the electric chair at Sing Sing.
It all ends in a fairly exciting manner. I've given away enough of the plot already.
I wish to call attention to Merritt Gerstad's beautiful, shadow-filled compositions and to some wonderful scripting, mostly in the complicated manner in which Reginald Denny is portrayed. He is a nice guy -- with one teeny little character flaw that sets the entire plot in motion. It is the two of these that make this a remarkably compelling picture.