Public Hero Number 1 (1935)

Well Deserved Praise

Crappy film

Captivating movie !

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

"Public Hero No. 1" is part of the FBI public relations program to make G-men into heroes and replace the gangster as the box office attraction (e.g., "G-Men" with Jimmy Cagney, "Bullets or Ballots" with Edward G. Robinson). After all, in the early 30s, it's the gangster who got the big box office bucks – "Little Caesar", "Public Enemy", etc.Chester Morris plays the undercover G-man who infiltrates the notorious Midwest Purple Gang by breaking the gang leader (Joseph Calleia) out of prison. Along the way he meets the mob doctor (Lionel Barrymore) and falls in love with the mobster's sister (Jean Arthur).The first third of the film is a standard prison film with a pretty exciting prison break sequence, although it wouldn't make my top 10 list ("Cool Hand Luke", "Each Dawn I Die", "Papillion", "Midnight Express", "The Shawshank Redemption", "The Escapist", "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", "Escape from New York", "Stalag 17", "The Great Escape"). No sooner do we get comfortable with the prison genre, the film dramatically changes tone and becomes a classic 30s screwball comedy with Jean Arthur exchanging verbal bullets with fast talking Chester Morris, and a very animated Lionel Barrymore overplaying his role as a drunken physician. When it returns to the crime drama with star crossed lovers, the film begins to wobble a bit, but eventually it moves to the happy ending expected in the mid 30s, with a Dillinger-esque shootout to cap it off.It's a fast paced film, but there are far better crime films and screwball comedies from this era. Still, the performances are uniformly good, so if you're a fan of Morris, Callelia, Barrymore, George E. Stone, Paul Kelly, et al you'll enjoy the film

I debated watching this one on Turner Classics this morning, but after fifteen minutes into the picture I was hooked. A pre-Boston Blackie Chester Morris makes his mark in a dual role as an undercover detective working a mob connection from inside prison. He's trying to learn the whereabouts of Sonny Black's (Joseph Calleia) headquarters and the rest of the Purple Gang. The reason for that name was never explained, so I was left wondering about it the rest of the story.You generally don't think of a gangster picture as having comedy relief elements, but Lionel Barrymore worked effectively here as the inebriated doctor of choice for the mobsters. Leaving his medical kit at a local gin mill as collateral, Doc Glass had about the finest nose for liquor in film history. On top of that, he always seemed to have a back up stash of the hard stuff in convenient locations just in case the glass he was working on got pinched.Jean Arthur is effective as the good girl who falls for Jeff Crane (Morris), and of course the twist with her character is that she's convict Black's sister. She makes a continuous running play for Crane in the early going, even after she learns he broke out of prison with her brother. That sets up the film's emotional conflict for the finale, as Terry (Arthur) must resolve her feelings for the man who wants to bring her brother to justice.The other performance of note in the picture is Paul Kelly's portrayal of Special Agent Duff, laying it out right on the line for Crane before he gets in too deep with Sonny Black's sister. Fortunately, that tug of war ends on a harmonious note at the closing bell, as Crane and Terry end the picture in a clinch, presumably on the way to the altar. On the way there though, you have a climactic shoot 'em up that leaves all the mobsters on the short end of staccato machine gun fire, courtesy of the era's penchant for closing out such stories with a healthy dose of law and order.

Public Hero #1 (1935) *** (out of 4) Extremely strange film from MGM starts off as a prison drama then moves to a screwball comedy and then goes back to gangster action. An undercover cop (Chester Morris) gets inside of a prison where he befriends a gangster (Joseph Calleia) and soon the two bust out but the gangster gets shot. Near death, the undercover cops goes out to find the gangster's drunken doctor (Lionel Barrymore) but due to a storm they are forced to stay at a hotel where the cop falls for a young woman (Jean Arthur) who turns out to be the gangster's sister. After hearing the news, the cop must try to find a way to bring the gangster down without hurting the sister. This film is pretty much all over the map but it's still a greatly entertaining film that works on ever level that it tries. The prison stuff early on is very entertaining as is the gangster stuff at the end. There's a big shootout at the end, which ranks among the best I've seen from any of these early gangster films. Normally screwball laughs wouldn't fit into a film like this but Barrymore does a terrific job in the comedy department as the drunken doctor. The highlight has to be the scene where he accidentally gets dressed in Arthur's robe due to how drunk he is. Barrymore's comic timing is terrific throughout the film. Arthur is also very strong in her role and delivers a very memorable character and performance. The real star is Morris who is simply wonderful all the way through. He has a lot of roles to play here from the tough guy trying to enter the gang to the cop trying to bring down the bad guy but he also does a great job in the romantic department with Arthur. Calleia, Paul Kelly, Lewis Stone and George E. Stone add nice support as well. It's also worth noting that the film seems partially influenced by the John Dillinger case who of course was murdered after watching MGM's Manhattan Melodrama the previous year and that includes the ending here, which has been slightly changed but still takes place outside a theater.

Public Hero #1 starts out as a conventional prison yarn, then switches to sophisticated screwball comedy, then back to shoot 'em up melodrama. Perhaps it is the way the cast handles the crackling dialogue by J Walter Reuben and Wells Root that makes this mixed-genre film so entertaining. It never sinks into torpidity, thanks in part to the introduction of Jean Arthur and Lionel Barrymore well into the proceedings. Until then it is up to Chester Morris to hold our interest, which he does robustly, as an undercover federal agent posing as a convict to trap bad guy Joseph Calleia and his gang. Barrymore, however, steals the show as a pickled-to-the-gills alcoholic mob doctor - the great ham at his hammiest. Calleia contributes a nicely textured portrait of a hardened but still human criminal. All in all, an energetic if contrived gangster story spiked with laughs, fun plot twists and colorful characters. The final moment is interesting. It's as if Chester Morris was itching to wrap and go home that day, didn't like the way the fade out was written, so he recklessly improvised the last line and the last blocking bit and then the director gave in and allowed it. See for yourself!