This movie is the type they don't make anymore. Gritty, real, fast paced and no undo preaching. It just leaves you with a heartwrenching feeling of how people are used and stirred up in unfortunate circumstances for others gain. One of the best closing scenes ever in a movie... spot on and ten stars.
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I thought this movie was awful. As it neared the end, I was thinking, "how are they going to cover the whole final act of who actually did it"? Obviously this did not happen, which is a disappointment, but one could argue that the movie has more power with us not knowing who the real murderer was (or if it was Robert Hale). Then as Sybil Hale gives her final speech, I was hoping for something which would make the two men she was speaking to feel like they maybe wished they were dead. But instead, they mildly pondered..."Gosh golly willickers, I wonder if he DID do it". The film fell flat.
Then there is the over-acting. To cut the film some slack, that was par for the course. Even as late as 1962 we have "To Kill A Mockingbird" which had a wondrous performance by Gregory Peck surrounded by some insufferable over-acting. Even still, so many moments were excruciating to watch. I feel only Edward Norris as Robert Hale walked away from this movie somewhat unscathed.
And last, but certainly not least, was the portrayal of the janitor which I believe was the most horrifically racist movie portrayal I have ever seen. Every time he appears on screen, it is more excruciating. Absolutely horrendous! :-(
In order to appreciate this movie, you need to put both it and the story that inspired it into context.
This is based on the murder of a 13 year old named Mary Phagen. The man accused was Leo Frank, a Jewish man who a manager at the pencil plant where she worked. This movie follows the sequence of events around this incident point for point including the boyfriend's testimony and the confused testimony of the black janitor.
As in this movie, the governor of Georgia felt that the threat of imminent violence had colored the trial and was going to commute Frank's sentence pending further investigation that he felt would clear Frank completely. When people got wind of it they stormed the jail cut the phone and power lines so they were able to spirit Frank away and they lynched him.
The prosecutor *did* go on to become governor of Georgia and no one involved seemed terrible upset with what happened.
They have never gotten a definitive answer to who killed Mary Phagen. While most scholars believe that the janitor did it, Phagen's great niece published an e-book about the case where she maintained that Franks committed the murder.
As for the acting, this was made in 1937, most actors came from the New York stage and were very emotive. What we think of as "normal" acting really doesn't come into vogue until the 50s and Marlon Brando.
Darling, I am trouble of the most spectacular kind!
I think you both make good points. The overacting (even for the '30s) permeates the movie. Even Claude Rains gets in on it (compare this to his superb performance in Casablanca five years later). I must say that I was waiting on the twist that would reveal who the real killer was (a la Presumed Innocent). But after it ended, I reflected and realized that what it was trying to show the viewer was that it didn't matter who did it. The town was bloodthirsty and the D.A. had "his case" to loft him politically. Hale realizes this from the minute he is detained. I agree with jobimfan3000 that the janitor, while stereotypical by today's standards, unfortunately represented most of the blacks who were in such positions in the South in the 30s (and the '10s when the events on which this film is based took place). Heck, I live in Mississippi today and still come across similar individuals from time to time in these types of jobs. It is still tough to watch, though. To some extent, I guess it's difficult for us living in the 21st century to appreciate the regional divide that still existed in the early 20th century. They were no more removed from the Civil War than we are from Vietnam. And the North/South hatred was still fresh on everyone's mind. One more reason that Hale never stood a chance. Good movie but not in my upper tier. 7/10
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