This picture gets a lot more complicated than it had to in order to tell it's story of recently released ex-con John Bradley (Ralph Bellamy) who gets mixed up with a shady gangster and his on the run moll. I was left a bit bewildered in the early going when bad guys Robson (Melvyn Douglas) and Conroy (Reed Brown Jr.) track the disheveled Louise Loring (Fay Wray) to Bradley's cabin, where Robson winds up shooting Bradley's dog. After a rather major scuffle in which Conroy is knocked unconscious and Bradley wrestles the gun away from Robson, the hoods are simply told to leave by the virtually non-plussed Bradley. Had Bradley called the authorities right then and there, the story would have been over, but then it would only have been about a twenty minute movie.
After Loring reveals her relationship with Robson in a series of flashbacks, Bradley decides to help her out, but they'll have to take it on the lam because if Conroy dies, it's a manslaughter rap. Further complicating matters for Bradley is local sheriff Grant (Granville Bates), who has a personal reason to put Bradley away - his daughter Helen (Nell O'Day) has a crush on him.
As if there weren't enough characters to keep track of, Roscoe Ates portrays Bradleys' buddy from the Big House, who has a penchant for hocking fancy jewelry. It didn't seem to make much sense to me that he was going to steal his own wife's watch out of her purse, but that's the kind of movie this was. Ates usually did duty as a comic relief sidekick in B Westerns of the era, but here he was a rather lame character and his gimmick didn't seem to work.
Ultimately the film makes it's way to a somewhat reasonable ending, although it calls for the split second timing that films of the era relied on. Bradley arrives just in the nick of time to prevent Robson from offing his partner to put the manslaughter angle back in play. Besting Robson for a second time, Bradley and Loring close the picture out in a clinch, but I never got the feeling that they would live happily ever after.
After Loring reveals her relationship with Robson in a series of flashbacks, Bradley decides to help her out, but they'll have to take it on the lam because if Conroy dies, it's a manslaughter rap. Further complicating matters for Bradley is local sheriff Grant (Granville Bates), who has a personal reason to put Bradley away - his daughter Helen (Nell O'Day) has a crush on him.
As if there weren't enough characters to keep track of, Roscoe Ates portrays Bradleys' buddy from the Big House, who has a penchant for hocking fancy jewelry. It didn't seem to make much sense to me that he was going to steal his own wife's watch out of her purse, but that's the kind of movie this was. Ates usually did duty as a comic relief sidekick in B Westerns of the era, but here he was a rather lame character and his gimmick didn't seem to work.
Ultimately the film makes it's way to a somewhat reasonable ending, although it calls for the split second timing that films of the era relied on. Bradley arrives just in the nick of time to prevent Robson from offing his partner to put the manslaughter angle back in play. Besting Robson for a second time, Bradley and Loring close the picture out in a clinch, but I never got the feeling that they would live happily ever after.