Wild Company (1930) User Reviews

H. B. Warner and Bela Lugosi

[kevinolzak · 5/10 · 5 December 2013]

1930's "Wild Company" was an early talkie attempt at the generation gap, a rare starring role for Frank Albertson, remembered as the rich oil magnate flirting with Janet Leigh 30 years later in "Psycho." Larry Grayson (Albertson) and his younger sister (Joyce Compton) spend their evenings out partying, much to the consternation of their wealthy politician father (H. B. Warner) and doting mother (Claire McDowell), but when Larry falls for a singer (Sharon Lynn) known for her association with notorious gangster Joe Hardy (Kenneth Thomson), his father decides the time has come to limit Larry's resources. However, it's already too late, as Hardy plots to rob the Skyrocket nightclub, firmly believing that if Larry is involved, his father will try to hush it up. Rifling the safe, Hardy is interrupted by the club's owner, Felix Brown (Bela Lugosi), who, despite pleading for his life, is gunned down for his troubles, with Larry just outside the door, and his father present to see his beloved son sneaking out the window. Yes, the latter portions do become preachy, but it was a different time then. Sharon Lynn is best remembered as James Finlayson's chanteuse wife in Laurel and Hardy's "Way Out West," and there is a brief unbilled appearance from Grady Sutton, flirting with Larry's sister (he too worked with Laurel and Hardy, as well as W. C. Fields). Lugosi, again employed at Fox in those early days prior to "Dracula," has only a few minutes of screen time, and gets bumped off 22 minutes before the end of this 73 minute feature. H. B. Warner, who had played Christ in 1927's "King of Kings," would later work with Boris Karloff in 1931's "Five Star Final."

Good Performances, Underwritten Message Story

[boblipton · 5/10 · 26 February 2021]

H.B. Warner is a well-connected and successful merchant. He indulges his son, Frank Albertson, with plenty of money and a loose grip; as he tells wife Claire McDowell, he knows what it's like to be young. As a result, he has no idea of the situation Albertson is in: smitten with night-club singer Sharon Lynn, who is the mistress of Kenneth Thomson. Thomson plans to use Albertson as a cover for the robbery and murder of night-club owner Bela Lugosi, confident the by framing matters right, Albertson will go down with them, and Waner will never permit that.

There's a lot lurking in the subtext of this story, with its intermingling of flaming youth and organized crime. Leo McCarey, in his first movie for Fox, makes a stab at it, with a peroration by George Fawcett to define and condemn the lapses of modern society. The subject however is not McCarey's meat, and despite some fine performances, particularly by Warner, the movie lacks density to give it much gravity. The movie feels as if it could have been cut by five or ten minutes without losing anything. As a result, it[s a heartfelt if undistinguished drama.

Creaky Melodrama

[dcole-2 · 3/10 · 4 January 2004]

This is a very preachy, stodgy melodrama about fast-living Frank Albertson who falls in with the titled "wild company" to the shame of his politician father, H.B. Warner. The cast is good but the movie is very talky in that early 30's style of people coming into a room, standing there and having long conversations. At the end a judge makes a long, long, long speech about responsibility that will make everyone yawn. But the acting is all fine and Bela Lugosi is a stand-out in his small role as a doomed nightclub owner.

Sharon Lynn Wows With "That's What I Like About You"!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 13 May 2016]

After the flapper age where youth must have it's fling movies started to point a judgmental finger at the frivolousness of the youth of the day and "Wild Company" may have been one of the first. It was from the soon to be struggling Fox studio who in the early talkies had built up a roster of bright, young up and coming stars - Frank Albertson, Richard Keene and Sharon Lynn, all featured in this movie about the wayward age!!

Aah, the young moderns - do times really change? Frazzled Henry Grayson (H.B. Warner) not only has to contend with an annoying bow tie but a reckless son Larry. Surprisingly he is the indulgent parent, his wife (Claire MacDowall) thinks he is too easy on discipline and that Larry needs guidance. Henry is too busy giving speeches at his meetings about how the young should obey the law (and with Warner's eloquence you don't doubt that he will follow it through). At about the same time Henry is extolling Larry's virtues, Larry is making whoopee at a notorious nightclub - the Skyrocket and making the acquaintance of snappy song bird Sally (Sharon Lynn, whose rendition of "That's What I Like About You" is the movie highlight)!! But Sally's "big thrill" is Joe Harding (Kenneth Thompson) a racketeer who, unlike Sally who is miffed that Larry has spoiled her routine, wants her to get friendly with the influential son of the crusading mayor!! He has big plans for Larry that include being a fall guy for a robbery that is in the planning stages!!

It's also clear why Frank Albertson (as Larry) didn't become a star. As a peppy juvenile (a bit easier to take than Arthur Lake) he was fine but carrying an entire movie, he just couldn't do it. It's only when H.B. Warner and Kenneth Thompson have their moments that the film comes up to par. By the end Larry is charged with murder (Bela Lugosi has the small but pivotal role of a club manager who walks into the robbery), with stern judge (George Fawcett) giving an impassioned speech where he lays the blame for the wild kids squarely at the feet of the lacksadasical parents!!

Apart from Albertson and Lynn, there was Frank Keene (another Fox hopeful), Mildred van Dorn (whose biggest role had been in the earlier "Son of the Gods") and as his sister, Joyce Compton, almost unrecognizable as a brunette but whose career was destined to outlast them all!!