Is There Justice? (1931) review - Fast, cheap, and delightfully dumb

Is this worth your time tonight? If you love dusty, fast-moving pre-code melodramas where people make the worst possible decisions, yes. But if you want actual logic or characters who act like real humans, you will probably hate this thing within ten minutes. 🍿

It is one of those incredibly cheap B-movies from 1931 that moves so fast it forgets to explain why anyone is doing anything. The whole plot kicks off because a District Attorney named Raymond sends an innocent woman to jail, where she dies.

Her reporter brother, Jerry, vows revenge. But then he immediately gets distracted because he finds the DA’s daughter, Kay, dancing on a table in her underwear during a police raid.

And by underwear, I mean she looks like she is wearing a modest wool bathing suit from 1912. Yet, everyone on screen is absolutely scandalized. 😲

The Speed of 1930s Justice

This movie is barely an hour long, but it crams in enough plot for a whole season of a modern soap opera. We go from blackmail to murder to a death row sentence in what feels like about fifteen minutes.

It reminds me of other frantic dramas from that era like Millie, where the moral outrage is dialed up to eleven. Though this one has way less budget to work with.

My absolute favorite part is when Jerry finds Kay's glove next to a dead body. Instead of asking her about it, he just assumes she committed murder and decides to literally go to the electric chair to protect her.

They barely even know each other! I think they had maybe two short conversations before he decided to die for her. Talk about moving too fast. 😅

Some Odd Little Details

There is a scene where a guy gets shot, and he falls down so awkwardly it looks like he tripped over an invisible dog. Also, keep your eyes peeled for a very young Walter Brennan in a tiny, uncredited role.

He is always a treat to spot in these early talkies before he became the famous old codger we all know. The film has this incredibly cheap look where every office has the exact same desk and the same ugly painting on the wall.

You can tell they shot this in about four days on a budget of about twelve dollars. But honestly, that is part of the charm.It is much more fun than some of the stuffy, prestigious silent films like The Bond Boy which take themselves way too seriously. This one just wants to entertain you with trashy drama.

"I'll save her, even if it kills me!" - Jerry, basically, though his actual dialogue is even more ridiculous.

In the end, everything gets wrapped up in about two minutes when a guy named Shorty just confesses because the police ask him nicely. It is not a masterpiece, not even close.

But if you want a quick laugh and some pure, unfiltered 1931 nonsense, it is absolutely worth a watch.