mark.waltz Review of Born Reckless

Born Reckless (1930)

More creaky than the floors of the "Old Dark House".

[3/10 · 28 February 2013]

It's a shame that this early talkie by John Ford is as poor as it is. The potential is there for an early "Little Caesar" and "The Public Enemy" (released only a short time later), but lacks the pacing of those similar gangster films which have become classics while this one just lays there. Fox Studios didn't have the same type of camera equipment as Warner Brothers did, and it shows. Tinny sound recording, a mostly grounded camera which barely moves, and lighting that only once in a while shows signs of life. The performances can be described as less than adequate, the actors all speaking their lines extremely slow, even such talented actors as Edmund Lowe, Warren Hymer and Lee Tracy, directed to draw out every word. The story covers World War I (with a bit of witty dialog here and there during the training sequences) through prohibition (with the most boring criminals imaginable) and bogs down in a mother love story that fortunately doesn't overstay its welcome. It also contains one of the most bizarre blunt endings I've ever seen in films, literally flashing "The End" titles without really even ending the scene it is in the middle of.