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5.6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. X Marks the Spot remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have about an hour and you want to see how movies used to handle big emotions without any subtlely, this is a good pick. It's for people who like those snappy, fast-talking newsroom dramas from the early thirties. If you can't stand old movies where the sound is a bit fuzzy or the acting is way too loud, you’ll probably hate it.
The whole thing starts in 1923. It’s one of those setups that feels like it belongs in a silent film like The Forbidden Path or something.
Our main guy is a reporter and he’s desperate. His little sister is going to be "crippled for life" unless he gets five thousand dollars for an operation.
That is a huge amount of money for 1923. I mean, you could probably buy a whole street for that back then.
He gets the cash from this guy named Riggs, who is clearly up to no good. But hey, the sister walks again, so who cares where the money came from, right?
Then the movie just jumps eight years into the future. Eight years!
Now it is 1931 and we are in New York. The reporter is played by Wallace Ford and he is basically vibrating with energy the whole time.
He talks so fast I actually had to rewind a couple of times. It’s that classic "hey look at me I'm a big city journalist" vibe that you see in a lot of these early talkies.
Anyway, a showgirl gets murdered. Because it’s a movie, our reporter guy becomes the main suspect.
He doesn't have an alibi. He doesn't have witnesses. It looks really bad for him.
I noticed this one scene where he’s trying to act cool while the police are grillng him. His tie is slightly crooked and it actually made the scene feel more real.
He decides to set a trap to find the real killer. He meets this guy in the middle of the night, and guess who? It's Riggs.
The same guy who saved his sister's legs. Talk about awkward.
This is where the movie actually gets interesting for a second. It stops being a standard mystery and becomes about debt.
The reporter feels like he owes Riggs everything. He literally says he won't expose him because of what happened years ago.
It's a weird moral choice. Like, is one girl's legs worth letting a murderer go free? The movie doesn't really let him answer that properly because the police show up anyway.
The reporter accidentally leads the cops right to Riggs. It wasn't even on purpose!
I felt kind of bad for the guy. He tried to be loyal and he still ended up being the snitch.
There is a courthouse scene at the end that is very dramatic. Charles Middleton is in this movie too, and he just has one of those faces that looks like it was carved out of an old tree.
He’s always great to watch even when the script is a bit thin. Speaking of thin, some of the supporting characters just sort of vanish into the background.
I forgot Virginia Lee Corbin was even in the movie until she popped back up. It’s not like What Every Woman Wants where the characters feel a bit more fleshed out.
The sets look okay, but you can tell they were reusing some stuff. There is a street corner that looks exactly like every other street corner in a 1931 movie.
Also, the music just stops and starts in really weird places. Sometimes there is just total silence while two people stare at each other for way too long.
It makes the pacing feel a bit clunky. One second they are racing around, the next they are just standing there like they forgot their lines.
I did like the lighting in the night scenes though. It had a bit of that moody shadow work you see in stuff like The Golem but way less artistic.
It’s more of a "we only have two lights and a flashlight" kind of moody. It works for a gritty crime story.
The sister, played by Joyce Coad, doesn't really do much after the beginning. She’s just a plot point with legs. Literally.
There's a weird bit where a guy is smoking a cigar and the smoke just fills up the whole frame. I don't think they meant for that to happen, but it looked cool.
It reminded me of those old shorts like The Old Hokum Bucket where things just happen on screen and they keep rolling. No one cared back then about being perfect.
Is the ending satisfying? I guess. It’s very legalistic.
Everyone gets what they deserve, I suppose. But the reporter guy still feels like he lost something.
He had to choose between his friend and the law. That’s a tough spot to be in, even if your friend is a total creep who kills people.
The movie is pretty short, which is its biggest strength. It doesn't overstay its welcome or try to be a deep masterpiece.
It’s just a solid, slightly messy story about a guy in a bad situation. Worth a watch if you’re bored on a Sunday afternoon. 🎬
If you want to see something totally different after this, maybe try São Paulo, Sinfonia da Metrópole. It’s got none of the dialogue but all of the city energy.
Anyway, X Marks the Spot isn't going to change your life. But it’s a neat little window into how people thought about loyalty and crime ninety years ago.
Sometimes that’s enough. Just don't expect a big twist that you haven't seen a million times before.
IMDb —
1917
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