Edward G. Robinson departs from his more notorious bad-guy roles to play the wronged man in BLACKMAIL, a film that is something of a distant relative of what would come to be THE FUGITIVE which would star Harrison Ford more than sixty years later.
John Ingram is a man who is trying to support his wife (played by Ruth Hussey right before her second-tier stardom) until his past comes in the form of William Rainey (Gene Lockhart) who not only is aware of Ingram's past in a chain-gang from which he escaped, but was also the man responsible for getting him there in the first place. He comes with a proposal to "clear Ingram's name" but this in turn lands Ingram back in the chain-gang with one motive: escape and revenge.
A simple story, one which never tries to go beyond it's apparent B-movie status despite the actors involved in it, BLACKMAIL does not seem like an MGM product but more Warner Bros. The sparse scenes, the unglamorous vibe throughout, the grittiness that pervades throughout add to its credence. Though some plot inconsistencies are present, it's a quick moving story and gets to the point pretty fast without asking too much analysis.
John Ingram is a man who is trying to support his wife (played by Ruth Hussey right before her second-tier stardom) until his past comes in the form of William Rainey (Gene Lockhart) who not only is aware of Ingram's past in a chain-gang from which he escaped, but was also the man responsible for getting him there in the first place. He comes with a proposal to "clear Ingram's name" but this in turn lands Ingram back in the chain-gang with one motive: escape and revenge.
A simple story, one which never tries to go beyond it's apparent B-movie status despite the actors involved in it, BLACKMAIL does not seem like an MGM product but more Warner Bros. The sparse scenes, the unglamorous vibe throughout, the grittiness that pervades throughout add to its credence. Though some plot inconsistencies are present, it's a quick moving story and gets to the point pretty fast without asking too much analysis.