"Day of Reckoning" is a surprisingly involving and well-done minor effort from MGM in 1933. It does not stiffly unspool like most films from the early 1930's, as it has excellent pacing and the performances are effortless and realistic. A variety of personalities are on display, played by a troupe of comfortably familiar actors from the era, and weave themselves in and out of the proceedings in a most natural way. Director Charles Brabin orchestrates and maintains a modern fluidity through the entire film.
More than a decade later Richard Dix made a picture with a very similar story in a Whistler feature, but this one seems to be a little more energetic and less maudlin, at least as I remember it now. One especially appreciated element is how the precipitating reason for the ensuing drama is not even depicted (it seems to me that this particular plot and story-telling device was rarely-- if ever-- used in the countless detective and other dramas on television).
As a side note, I explored a scoring quirk that I discerned. This quirk is that the 12 viewers who previously reviewed the film here on IMDb assigned an average score for the film of 8.0, while the other 248 viewers who only rated the picture and provided no review assigned an average score of 6.3, nearly two points lower. There are at least two or three reasons why this might be; however, I will only offer the data as food for thought.
In conclusion, "Day of Reckoning" is dramatic and exciting and is very much worth a look by vintage movie fans.
More than a decade later Richard Dix made a picture with a very similar story in a Whistler feature, but this one seems to be a little more energetic and less maudlin, at least as I remember it now. One especially appreciated element is how the precipitating reason for the ensuing drama is not even depicted (it seems to me that this particular plot and story-telling device was rarely-- if ever-- used in the countless detective and other dramas on television).
As a side note, I explored a scoring quirk that I discerned. This quirk is that the 12 viewers who previously reviewed the film here on IMDb assigned an average score for the film of 8.0, while the other 248 viewers who only rated the picture and provided no review assigned an average score of 6.3, nearly two points lower. There are at least two or three reasons why this might be; however, I will only offer the data as food for thought.
In conclusion, "Day of Reckoning" is dramatic and exciting and is very much worth a look by vintage movie fans.