Don't let that title mislead you. When I say Bogey at his worst I mean that I personally have never Humphrey Bogart a bigger rat on the screen than in You Can't Get Away With Murder. This is far from Bogey's worst film though it hardly ranks up there with Casablanca.
The source of this film was a flop Broadway play that only ran 12 performances by Jonathan Finn and Warden Lewis Lawes of Sing Sing who back in the day doubled as author as well as reforming penologist. He also wrote 20,000 Years in Sing Sing and Invisible Stripes both filmed successfully by Warner Brothers. He also did this god awful film Over the Wall for Warner Brothers also a prison based drama. You Can't Get Away With Murder falls in between these extremes.
This was a B film and Bogart and Gale Page received top billing. But the real star here is Dead End gang leader Billy Halop. He plays her younger brother, the same role essentially as the one he did in Dead End as Sylvia Sidney's brother, the kid who might have a future if he got out of the corrupting influences in his neighborhood. Particularly Humphrey Bogart who's essentially a two bit hood.
They do a filling station stick up in New Jersey and later rob a pawn shop. While Halop is lookout, Bogey kills the owner with a gun that Page's boyfriend Harvey Stephens has for his job that Halop stole. When Stephens is picked up for the crime because Bogart left Stephen's weapon at the scene deliberately, Halop doesn't say a word, even after both of them are picked up for the filling station heist.
As it is in these Warner Brothers melodramas all the dramatis personae meet in the climax as a prison break is timed with Harvey Stephens date with old sparky as the chair at Sing Sing used to be called. Now how two guys picked up on a New Jersey crime would be in Sing Sing I still haven't figured out.
The film was essentially way to melodramatic and contrived for my tastes, nevertheless Bogart did a fine job as a hood who really shows what a rat he is all the way through and at the end. Henry Travers has a good part as the lifer who tries to get Halop to come clean of whatever is bothering him. Harvey Stephens is a bland hero, but in fairness he's written as a blithering idiot who's going to go to the chair to shield Page and her brother. As that other Warner Brothers icon would say, "What a Maroon".
Best job in the film without a doubt is Billy Halop. His death scene in the finale is very moving and he does a fine job as a kid who just fell in with bad company.
I've not seen all of Humphrey Bogart's films, but most of them and I haven't seen him lower and meaner than in You Can't Get Away With Murder.
The source of this film was a flop Broadway play that only ran 12 performances by Jonathan Finn and Warden Lewis Lawes of Sing Sing who back in the day doubled as author as well as reforming penologist. He also wrote 20,000 Years in Sing Sing and Invisible Stripes both filmed successfully by Warner Brothers. He also did this god awful film Over the Wall for Warner Brothers also a prison based drama. You Can't Get Away With Murder falls in between these extremes.
This was a B film and Bogart and Gale Page received top billing. But the real star here is Dead End gang leader Billy Halop. He plays her younger brother, the same role essentially as the one he did in Dead End as Sylvia Sidney's brother, the kid who might have a future if he got out of the corrupting influences in his neighborhood. Particularly Humphrey Bogart who's essentially a two bit hood.
They do a filling station stick up in New Jersey and later rob a pawn shop. While Halop is lookout, Bogey kills the owner with a gun that Page's boyfriend Harvey Stephens has for his job that Halop stole. When Stephens is picked up for the crime because Bogart left Stephen's weapon at the scene deliberately, Halop doesn't say a word, even after both of them are picked up for the filling station heist.
As it is in these Warner Brothers melodramas all the dramatis personae meet in the climax as a prison break is timed with Harvey Stephens date with old sparky as the chair at Sing Sing used to be called. Now how two guys picked up on a New Jersey crime would be in Sing Sing I still haven't figured out.
The film was essentially way to melodramatic and contrived for my tastes, nevertheless Bogart did a fine job as a hood who really shows what a rat he is all the way through and at the end. Henry Travers has a good part as the lifer who tries to get Halop to come clean of whatever is bothering him. Harvey Stephens is a bland hero, but in fairness he's written as a blithering idiot who's going to go to the chair to shield Page and her brother. As that other Warner Brothers icon would say, "What a Maroon".
Best job in the film without a doubt is Billy Halop. His death scene in the finale is very moving and he does a fine job as a kid who just fell in with bad company.
I've not seen all of Humphrey Bogart's films, but most of them and I haven't seen him lower and meaner than in You Can't Get Away With Murder.