Motive for Revenge (1935) Review - Worst Mother-in-Law in Cinema History

If you have an hour to spare and love old, dusty melodramas where characters make the absolute worst decisions, Motive for Revenge is a fun little time capsule. But if you hate creaky 1930s acting and plots that rely on people being incredibly dumb, you should probably skip this one. 🍿

The whole thing starts because Barry, a bank teller played by Donald Cook, has the world's most annoying mother-in-law. She literally nags him into stealing bank funds because she thinks her daughter Muriel is living in "poverty."

Like, he just casually robs his own job because she complained too much. It is wild how fast he gives in to the peer pressure.

Of course, Barry gets caught immediately. You almost feel bad for him, but then you remember he has the survival instincts of a cardboard box.

While Barry is doing his time in prison, the mother-in-law doesn't even wait for his seat to get cold. She forces Muriel to divorce him and marry a wealthy industrialist instead.

Honestly, the mother-in-law is the real villain here, and she deserves her own horror spin-off.

Once Barry gets out, things go from bad to hilarious. He goes to see Muriel, the new rich husband walks in, a gun goes off in the dark, and suddenly everyone is screaming murder.

The court scenes that follow are so rushed they make Is There Justice? look like a detailed documentary. The judge looks like he wants to go home and eat dinner.

There is a great moment where a witness looks so confused by their own line that they stare directly at the camera for a split second. It's those little accidents that make these cheap B-movies so charming to watch today.

It doesn't have the grit of The Criminal Path, but it moves so fast you don't have time to get bored. The dialogue is full of that classic 1930s theatrical shouting where everyone sounds like they are trying to project to the back of a theater.

I did notice the audio quality is pretty rough in the middle section. There is this weird buzzing sound during a tense conversation that makes it sound like a giant bee is trapped in the microphone.

Is it a great movie? Absolutely not.

But if you like watching bad decisions unfold at lightning speed, it's a pretty entertaining sixty minutes. Just don't expect any deep messages about the human condition here.