Producer: Robert Sisk. Copyright 7 July 1939 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Palace: 27 July 1939. Australian release: 28 September 1939. 80 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Despite losing his youthful sweetheart to the town's banker, a small-town storekeeper saves the bank from ruin. The time is 1931. All the action takes place on Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
NOTES: Film debuts of John Archer and Alice Eden, winners of Jesse L. Lasky's "Gateway to Hollywood" contest, sponsored by CBS radio and Wrigley's chewing gum. Archer went on to a fair-sized career, mostly in "B" movies — and leading support roles at that — but Eden made only one more film, "Kit Carson" (1940) in which she appeared under her real name, Rowena Cook.
COMMENT: Impressive depiction of small-town early 1930s Americana, light-years removed from the allegedly similar environs of the synthetic M-G-M Hardy family. This is a much grimmer world, where people are forced to face up to real issues, with no easy solutions; where panic and self-interest often take the place of reason and community-consciousness; where young love is often thwarted by ambition (and not just on the part of the career-minded male either); where the town drunk is not just a figure of fun, but contrives to be both boorishly obnoxious yet tragically sympathetic; above all, where venality is uppermost in just about everyone's mind — except of course in the embittered storekeeper hero (revenge is what he's after).
Photographed in an appropriately film noir style, the bleakness of the lighting serves to reflect the underlying atmosphere of claustrophobic selfishness and hate. Ingeniously the writers use National Holidays to bring these issues to the surface. The dialogue for the most part has the ring of truth. It is at its weakest in the mouths of the younger players, at its most chillingly dramatic when spoken by Ellis and Hinds -- both of whom give superb performances here. Errol also does most effectively by the difficult role of the drunk.
Jason's direction is a little uncertain at times. Obviously constrained by the demands of a "B" budget, I felt he could have made more attempt to disguise some obviously back-dropped sound- stage scenes.
Despite a script by cult writer Dalton Trumbo and some enthusiastic contemporary reviews, "Career" is not as well-known today as Ellis' other small-town picture, "A Man To Remember". screenplayed by Trumbo the previous year and directed by Garson Kanin. Frankly I think "Career" is much the superior movie, and I'm amazed that it has attracted only one previous reviewer. (I was expecting at least twenty or thirty).
SYNOPSIS: Despite losing his youthful sweetheart to the town's banker, a small-town storekeeper saves the bank from ruin. The time is 1931. All the action takes place on Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
NOTES: Film debuts of John Archer and Alice Eden, winners of Jesse L. Lasky's "Gateway to Hollywood" contest, sponsored by CBS radio and Wrigley's chewing gum. Archer went on to a fair-sized career, mostly in "B" movies — and leading support roles at that — but Eden made only one more film, "Kit Carson" (1940) in which she appeared under her real name, Rowena Cook.
COMMENT: Impressive depiction of small-town early 1930s Americana, light-years removed from the allegedly similar environs of the synthetic M-G-M Hardy family. This is a much grimmer world, where people are forced to face up to real issues, with no easy solutions; where panic and self-interest often take the place of reason and community-consciousness; where young love is often thwarted by ambition (and not just on the part of the career-minded male either); where the town drunk is not just a figure of fun, but contrives to be both boorishly obnoxious yet tragically sympathetic; above all, where venality is uppermost in just about everyone's mind — except of course in the embittered storekeeper hero (revenge is what he's after).
Photographed in an appropriately film noir style, the bleakness of the lighting serves to reflect the underlying atmosphere of claustrophobic selfishness and hate. Ingeniously the writers use National Holidays to bring these issues to the surface. The dialogue for the most part has the ring of truth. It is at its weakest in the mouths of the younger players, at its most chillingly dramatic when spoken by Ellis and Hinds -- both of whom give superb performances here. Errol also does most effectively by the difficult role of the drunk.
Jason's direction is a little uncertain at times. Obviously constrained by the demands of a "B" budget, I felt he could have made more attempt to disguise some obviously back-dropped sound- stage scenes.
Despite a script by cult writer Dalton Trumbo and some enthusiastic contemporary reviews, "Career" is not as well-known today as Ellis' other small-town picture, "A Man To Remember". screenplayed by Trumbo the previous year and directed by Garson Kanin. Frankly I think "Career" is much the superior movie, and I'm amazed that it has attracted only one previous reviewer. (I was expecting at least twenty or thirty).