Director: RALPH MURPHY. Screenplay: Garrettt Fort and Robert N. Lee. Additional dialogue: Allen Rivkin, P.J. Wolfson. Based on the 1931 novel by Cortland Fitzsimmons. Photography: Henry Sharp. Film editor: Joseph Kane. Art director: David S. Garber. Music: Harold C. Lewis. Production manager: Val Paul. A Charles R. Rogers Production. Associate producer: Harry Joe Brown.
Copyright 1 September 1932 by Paramount Publix Corp. New York opening at both the Times Square Paramount and the Brooklyn Paramount: 2 September 1932. 8 reels. 72 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: During the championship match between State and University, the number one football player keels over and dies in mysterious circumstances on the field.
COMMENT: Not surprisingly, this was a very popular picture in its day. A fast-moving story, crowded with an interesting group of characters, directed with style, pace and panache, and produced on a really top budget with realistically milling mobs of extras, deserved to succeed even before the main roles were filled with charismatic players like David Landau, J. Farrell McDonald and Charlie Ruggles. I'll admit that Landau is one of my favorite actors. I just love the way he can still dominate a scene even with his back to the camera and even if placed in another player's shadow. Although laced with obvious newsreel shots of an actual game, the editing is so skillful and the direction so astringently focused, we don't really care. The players, the crowds, the train travelers, the speak easy patrons, all seem so genuine, we can't help but thrill to the hero's dilemma, even when that hero is played by the less than charismatic Phillips Holmes. Admittedly the character is supposed to be made of less sterner stuff, but Holmes seems a little too pliable for a team member of the country's top group of footballers. The camera also focuses a little too much on Charlie Ruggles who, despite his obvious charisma, contrives to make his comic relief a little too drawn out and repetitious. Nevertheless, the movie holds the interest amazingly well right up to the climax when, alas, it starts to come apart – not enough to ruin the movie but just enough to put the last few minutes off balance.
The DVD is of very good quality.
Copyright 1 September 1932 by Paramount Publix Corp. New York opening at both the Times Square Paramount and the Brooklyn Paramount: 2 September 1932. 8 reels. 72 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: During the championship match between State and University, the number one football player keels over and dies in mysterious circumstances on the field.
COMMENT: Not surprisingly, this was a very popular picture in its day. A fast-moving story, crowded with an interesting group of characters, directed with style, pace and panache, and produced on a really top budget with realistically milling mobs of extras, deserved to succeed even before the main roles were filled with charismatic players like David Landau, J. Farrell McDonald and Charlie Ruggles. I'll admit that Landau is one of my favorite actors. I just love the way he can still dominate a scene even with his back to the camera and even if placed in another player's shadow. Although laced with obvious newsreel shots of an actual game, the editing is so skillful and the direction so astringently focused, we don't really care. The players, the crowds, the train travelers, the speak easy patrons, all seem so genuine, we can't help but thrill to the hero's dilemma, even when that hero is played by the less than charismatic Phillips Holmes. Admittedly the character is supposed to be made of less sterner stuff, but Holmes seems a little too pliable for a team member of the country's top group of footballers. The camera also focuses a little too much on Charlie Ruggles who, despite his obvious charisma, contrives to make his comic relief a little too drawn out and repetitious. Nevertheless, the movie holds the interest amazingly well right up to the climax when, alas, it starts to come apart – not enough to ruin the movie but just enough to put the last few minutes off balance.
The DVD is of very good quality.