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4.5/10
Archivist John
Senior Editor
A definitive 4.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Four Walls remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a soft spot for silent era melodrama, Four Walls is worth an hour of your time. Mostly because of Joan Crawford, who is absolutely electric before she became a statue of herself later in her career.
If you hate reading title cards every thirty seconds, you will probably find this one a bit of a chore. It moves slow in the middle.
John Gilbert plays Benny, a guy who just got out of jail and decides he is done with the hoodlum life. He wants to be reformed, which mostly mean sitting in a small room and looking at his mother.
It is one of those movies where going straight looks incredibly dull. Bertha, the "good" girl he's supposed to like, is fine but she has the personality of a damp paper towel.
Then there is Frieda. Joan Crawford plays her with this look in her eyes that says she is about to break something expensive.
She is hooked up with Monk now, who took over the gang while Benny was away. Monk is played by Louis Natheaux and he has this greasy mustache that you just know means trouble for everyone involved.
There is a scene at a party where Frieda tries to make Benny jealous by announcing she is marrying Monk. The way the camera stays on her face while she waits for a reaction is actually pretty great.
You can see the wheels turning in her head. She doesn't actually want Monk; she just wants Benny to get mad enough to hit someone or take her back.
The whole thing kicks into a different gear when a rival gang shows up. Suddenly it is not a domestic drama anymore, it is a chase.
The rooftop sequence is the big highlight. It feels surprisingly real for 1928, like they were actually scrambling over bricks.
I noticed a guy in the background during the party who looked like he was actually laughing at a joke, which felt weirdly natural for such a staged movie. It’s a small thing but it stuck out to me.
You can almost feel the wind on those sets during the roof scene. Monk falls, which you totally see coming, but the way Gilbert reacts is subtle and not too over-the-top.
It reminds me a bit of the pacing in Die letzte Stunde, though maybe a little less artsy and more focused on the grit. Or what passed for grit back then.
Gilbert’s performance is interesting here. People always talk about his voice ruining his career later, but here he is just using his face and he’s... okay, I guess.
He has this way of slouching his shoulders that makes him look like he is carrying a lot of weight. Or maybe his coat was just really heavy that day.
The ending feels a bit too neat and tidy. Benny gets cleared of the murder because the plot needs a happy ending, even if it doesn't totally make sense.
It is a solid flick if you are into the history of the genre or want to see Crawford before she was a mega-star. Just don't expect it to change your life or anything like that.
IMDb 7.7
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