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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
Honestly? Probably not. Unless you have a weird obsession with silent-era melodrama or you just really want to see a lawyer be the absolute worst person on screen, you can skip this one.
If you like your movies dripping with heavy-handed lessons and characters who are either saints or cartoonish villains, you might get a kick out of it. If you prefer, you know, subtle storytelling, stay far away.
The whole thing hinges on this slimy lawyer. He is so cartoonishly evil that I half-expected him to twirl a mustache. Watching him manipulate a family into ruin is just... exhausting. It feels like the movie is screaming "DON'T DRINK!" at you every five minutes.
The pacing is a disaster. It just drags in spots where it should be moving, and then jumps ahead when you actually want to see what happens next. It reminds me of the chaotic editing in The Big Idea, but without the charm to pull it off.
There is this one scene where the protagonist is supposed to be hitting rock bottom, but the acting is so over-the-top that I actually laughed out loud. It’s supposed to be sad, but it feels like a stage play gone wrong. Maybe he was just hungry? Who knows.
The cast is huge, but most of them just sort of stand around looking worried. It is a lot of people for a story that is actually quite thin. It reminds me a bit of the crowded feeling in The Nut Farm, where everyone is just vying for a scrap of the spotlight.
Look, I get what they were going for. It is an old school morality play. But it feels like a lecture from a cranky grandparent who forgot why they started talking in the first place. You can feel the movie trying so hard to make you feel bad, but it just feels stiff.
Not everything needs to be a tragedy. Sometimes, it is just a chore to sit through.
Year
1935
IMDb Rating
—
Editorial
Deciphering the legacy of transgressive cult cinema.
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