By John M. Whalen
In “Blackmail,†(1939), Edward G. Robinson plays John
Ingram, an expert at putting out oil well fires with explosives. He’s got a
wife, Helen (Ruth Hussey) a son, Hank (Bobs Watson), and a sidekick named Moose
(Guinn “Big Boy Williams). After one of his jobs, the newspapers snap his photo
and put him on the front page. His success affords him the opportunity to buy
his first oil well. But a short time after his picture appears in the papers an
obsequious stranger, William Ramey (Gene Lockhart), shows up at the house
begging for food. He turns out to be someone from Ingram’s past, who know that
the oil man is actually a wanted fugitive who escaped from a southern chain
gang nine years ago.
To keep Ramey quiet, Ingram gives him a job, but it
doesn’t take long before Ramey keeps upping the ante. He finally tells Ingram
he knows he’s innocent of the robbery charge he was sent to the chain gang for,
because he was the one who stole the money. In a scheme that only a dumb hero
in an MGM potboiler would fall for, Ingram exchanges ownership of the well for
a signed confession. Ramey, of course is too smart for Ingram, and in the end
Ingram not only does not get the confession, he also loses the well and is
taken in by police for questioning. Next
thing you know, it’s back to the chain gang.
“Blackmail,†was released by MGM seven years after
Warners’ “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain
Gang,†(1932) starring Paul Muni. Rather than focusing on social injustice and
the deplorable conditions of Southern chain gangs, as the Warners film did,
“Blackmail†uses all that as background for what is basically a melodrama. It
was probably a smart move to go that way, since there was no way MGM, or anyone
else, could have turned out a better socially conscious chain gang movie than
the Paul Muni film.
The chain gang scenes in “Blackmail†are not bad, with
director H.C. Potter and his writers (David Hertz and William Ludwig), focusing
less on the social inequities and more on how Ingram intends to honor his
promise to his wife not to try and escape again by not letting anything that
happens on the chain gang get to him. But after learning that Ramey is planning
to sell the well, and his family is now living in near-poverty, he begins to
crack. Not only that, the sadistic guard, who he escaped from nine years ago,
is still there with his bull whip, adding to his misery. He finally makes a
break with help from his good buddy, Moose, and heads back home for a showdown
with Ramey.
“Blackmail,†is an entertaining movie. Not every film has
to have “redeeming social value,†but it’s just too bad MGM couldn’t have come
up with a more believable plot. There are too many scenes where the characters
do things that strain credulity, especially when the film reaches its climax.
One of the problems is that Edward G, on loan to Metro,
was miscast. We’re used to him in his gangster roles—the tough guy who always comes
out on top. He gives a good performance as Ingram, but this tricky bit of
casting-against-type undermined the basic story line. As Ramey keeps squeezing him, you keep
expecting Ingram to pull a gun out of his coat and tell him: “Say, what do you
think I am? Some kind of sap? Got any last wishes?†But instead he falls hook
line and sinker for Ramey’s machinations.
Lockhart is another bit of unusual casting. Normally the
kind-hearted, sympathetic guy, as Ramey, he plays a groveling, totally
despicable snake. Those distractions wouldn’t be so much of a problem if the
plot and its unlikely twists, didn’t require so much suspension of disbelief. The
story, as contrived as it is, move along at high speed, and Ingram’s problems pile
up one after another for 81 fast minutes to the point where it seems he’ll
never resolve them. You won’t be tempted to hit the stop button on your remote
control until you reach the final frame, even though the denouement may leave
you scratching your head.
The Warner Archive has released “Blackmail†on DVD.
Picture and sound quality are very good. The only extra on the disc is the
original theatrical trailer. If you’re an Edward G. Robinson fan, or just like
chain gang movies, you’ll probably want to add this obscure title to your
collection.
John M. Whalen is the author of "Hunting Monsters is My Business: The Mordecai Slate Stories" . Click here to order the book from Amazon)
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