Synopsis
Free as the birds and smooth as a snake, Bat Roberts is on parole.
A conscientious attorney who is a member of the State Parole Board, finds his own son, using an alias, up for parole and makes the decision to cast the approving vote.
1936 Directed by Benjamin Stoloff
A conscientious attorney who is a member of the State Parole Board, finds his own son, using an alias, up for parole and makes the decision to cast the approving vote.
Lewis Stone James Gleason Bruce Cabot Louise Latimer Betty Grable Grace Bradley Nella Walker Frank M. Thomas Harry Jans John Arledge Frank Jenks Maxine Jennings Gordon Jones Jack Randall Alan Curtis Frenchy Durelle Fern Emmett Tommy Graham Arthur Hoyt John Ince Frank Mayo Philip Morris Carroll Nye Frank O'Connor Charles Richman Landers Stevens
Would make a good double feature with Sinner Take All, another Bruce Cabot vehicle where he’s a crooked son of an upright citizen.
Bruce Cabot plays a no-good criminal who keeps this side of his life away from his parents and in particular his father (Lewis Stone). Soon, the father takes a position on the parole board where everything comes to light.
This RKO production was obviously shot without too much money and it was clearly meant to be the second film in a double feature. Having said that, it offers up a decent story as well as a great cast. It's also just 65-minutes so it flies by without any slow moments.
The title pretty much tells you the position that the film takes but what I found interesting is that there's a lot of violence in the film. This was after…
This was a hack job! So many potentially devastating moments of emotion and.... none of it. A total 'shoot the script and get on with it...'
Solid 1930s melodrama from RKO with Lewis Stone on leave from his home studio MGM and Bruce Cabot giving his best performance since King Kong. Cabot's snarling bad guy, and Stone has his heartbroken parole-officer father create a good dynamic for a drama from this era.