Ten Nights in a Barroom (1931)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

William A. O'Connor

Writers:

Norton S. Parker (writer)
Edwin Waugh (play)

Release Date:

1 March 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A man's heavy drinking drives away his family and threatens to destroy his relationship with his little daughter. |

Plot Keywords:

Remake | Saloon | Drunk | Alcohol | Temperance

Cast

William Farnum	...	Joe Morgan
Tom Santschi	...	Simon Slade
Peggy Lou Lynd	...	Mary Morgan
Robert Frazer	...	Dr. Romaine
Phyllis Barrington	...	Ann Slade
Rosemary Theby	...	Sarah Morgan
Thomas Jefferson	...	Silent Sam
Lionel Belmore	...	Bill, the Bartender
John Darrow	...	Frank Slade
Frank Leigh	...	Harvey Green
Kathrin Clare Ward	...	Grandma Morgan
Sheila Bromley	...	June Manners (as Sheila Manners)
Fern Emmett	...	Fanny
Harry Todd	...	Sample
John Uppman	...	The Singer

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Willis Kent Productions

Honest portrayal of alcoholism and it's effects...

1st watched 2/18/2007 - 6 out of 10(Dir-William O'Connor): Honest portrayal of alcoholism and it's effects in this rarely seen film. The title character, a family man named Joe Morgan, has a daughter who is very sick and visit's the new doctor in town at the local hotel and bar. The only problem is he steps his foot into the bar and orders a drink(his family history is such that one drink will start a cycle that he won't be able to stop). Up to this point, he is seen as a hard-working, family-loving man but things get worse as he frequents the bars day after day. After a few months, he is to the point where he needs the doctor worse than his daughter as she is getting better under his care. He loses his job and all his money in a card game and soon he is spending more time at the bar than at home. There are a couple un-forgettable scenes where his daughter visits him in the bar asking him to come home because she misses him so much that is heart-breaking(although the 2nd scene makes it a little over-done). This movie started as a portrait of a sick girl and became a portrait of a sick man who is only temporarily won over by the love of his daughter. The movie doesn't try to explain away the problem, it just presents it. He still loves his daughter and his family but he is taken away from it by his alcoholism. It also doesn't try to candy-coat things with a Hollywood-type ending, it just ends(actually on a pretty negative note). The only real negative to the movie is it's attempt to throw in minor scenes of comedy and a very slight portrayal of the effect on the family but these things really don't diminish from the overall impact of the movie.