When this film begins, the audience is taken for a real ride. The usually nice Edward Arnold turns out to be playing an amazingly cold and heartless guy. Surprisingly, this evil crook turns out to have a son (Gene Reynolds)--a teenager who idolizes him. So, even when Dad robs banks and kills people, the boy STILL thinks his father is great. When the boy is captured by the police, the kid naturally turns out to be incorrigible and gets himself thrown out of reform school. In an odd twist, however, instead of sending him to a worse facility, they parole him to a farmer (Robert Sterling). What the kid doesn't know is that the authorities expect the father to try to come back for him eventually--and then they'll spring the trap. But in the meantime, the boy is stuck on the place for some time--weeks or months. And in the process, for the first time, the boy ends up making connections with folks other than his Dad. What's next? See the film.
While the plot is a bit moralistic and predictable at times, this still is a dandy movie mostly because of the great dialog and acting. Arnold is great as a Dillinger-type crook but the supporting actors and the writing really make the picture. Reynolds is great--mostly because he has some of the snappiest and most sarcastic comments I've ever heard from a kid! And, Lionel Barrymore, though he's only in the movie a bit, is terrific. The bottom line is that this film, though pretty much a B-movie, has the full MGM treatment--and is a fine and enjoyable picture throughout.