Welcome Home (1935): A B-Movie Reunion That’s Surprisingly Okay

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for those quick, punchy studio programmers from the mid-thirties, sure. If you need something with big stakes or, you know, a budget that didn't consist of spare change and leftover set pieces, skip it. It’s light, it’s breezy, and it’s about as complex as a glass of water.

Richard Foster is the ringleader of a quartet of grifters, which is a great setup for a movie that doesn't actually want to deal with the messy parts of being a criminal. You’ve got your stock swindler, your phony dentist, and the obligatory “decoration” character. It’s a very 1935 way of dividing up a cast.

The whole plot hinges on a high school reunion that doubles as a trap for a wealthy mark. It feels like one of those setups in In Wrong, where the gears of the story are moving so fast you aren't really supposed to check if they actually fit together. The town setting is quaint, bordering on aggressively polite.

The Grifter Life

Watching these guys try to act like normal, functioning members of society at a reunion is the highlight. There’s a specific scene where the "phony dentist" looks like he’s about to break character every time someone mentions a toothache. It’s subtle, but it made me laugh more than the actual script probably intended.

There’s a lot of chatter about money and old flames. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Suitor, though without the same level of charm. The romance between Foster and Susan Adams is the weak link, mostly because it feels like they realized they needed a ‘heart’ component halfway through writing the draft.

• The lighting in the reunion hall is bizarrely moody.
• I swear some of the extras are just wandering through the background looking for the craft services table.
• The dialogue is snappy, but it feels like it was written on the back of a napkin.

Is it good? I don’t know if 'good' is the word. It’s just... there. It’s a movie that knows it’s a filler slot on a Tuesday afternoon schedule. It hits the marks, tells the jokes, and gets out before you start asking too many questions about why the police in this town seem to be on vacation.

I found myself zoning out during the long speeches about 'the good old days' at the school. It’s strange how much weight the movie puts on this reunion as if it’s a life-changing event. It’s just a room full of people in suits. 🤷‍♂️

If you're looking for something deep, go watch Fabricante de suicidios instead. But if you just want to see some old-school character actors chew on some scenery for sixty minutes, you could do much worse.