Graft (1931)

Director:

Christy Cabanne

Writers:

Barry Barringer (continuity & dialogue)
Barry Barringer (story)

Release Date:

21 September 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

Cub reporter Dusty investigates the murder of the District Attorney and stumbles into a plot involving a kidnapping and a crooked election. |

Cast

Regis Toomey	...	Dustin Hotchkiss
Sue Carol	...	Constance Hall
Dorothy Revier	...	Pearl Vaughan
Boris Karloff	...	Terry
William B. Davidson	...	M.H. Thomas
George Irving	...	Robert Hall
Harold Goodwin	...	'Speed' Hansen
Richard Tucker	...	District Attorney Martin Harrison
Willard Robertson	...	E. T. Scudder

Runtime:

54 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Crusading Reporters

Every Poverty Row producer's favorite lead actor, Regis Toomey, is the world's most clueless cub reporter in this comedy-action newspaper romp about the events around a crusading District Attorney killed by Boris Karloff, two days before the election on the orders of his corrupt machine boss -- although the laughs are few and weak, alas. Toomey, as always, is up to his role, plenty of energy. Female lead, Sue Carol, however, cannot manage much in the way of an emotional register.

This is the sort of movie that has been done better before and afterward, but director Christy Cabanne plays with some interesting traveling shots. They must have been expensive as anything to achieve in this poverty row second feature, but Christy was not giving up a moving camera just because it was difficult. Unfortunately, he was not much of a dialogue director at this point, and Sue Carol's performance suffers. Also, I was rather taken aback by a flight of stairs into a cabin on board a yacht -- no handrails and the stairs are open. I wouldn't want to be going belowdecks that way on a rough sea.

On net, this is not a movie to seek out unless you are a Karloff fan, a Regis Toomey fan -- there may be one or two of those around -- or so mad for Sue Carol that you don't care it's in black and white. Her career didn't go much further -- a few years later, she became an agent, married Alan Ladd and promoted him into a major star.