Devil's Playground (1937) User Reviews

Interesting Re-make with top leads

[robluvthebeach · 7/10 · 24 February 2015]

Viewed this film online and though they were not in the 'prime' of their stardom (Richard Dix, Dolores Del Rio Chester Morris), they enacted their roles capably and highlighted the action with this movie which is an interesting remake of Submarine (1928).

Spoiler Alert: Ace Navy diver, Jack Dorgan and his aide for many years, Robert Mason, are separated when Jack receives orders to relocate to San Diego as a diving instructor and Bob is named chief petty officer of a submarine. In San Diego, Jack is consoled when he realizes his dream of owning a house but soon becomes bored with his new lifestyle and decides to go out for a night on the town. At a dance hall, Jack meets Carmen, a beautiful taxi dancer. Jack is immediately infatuated with Carmen, who tells him a misleading hard-luck story. Jack believes Carmen's story and asks her to marry him. Before they can go on a honeymoon, however, Jack is sent away on a salvage job. Carmen becomes bored and soon returns to her job at the dance hall. One night, Bob, who is on shore leave, visits the dance hall and falls in love with Carmen. Carmen does not reveal her marriage, and she and Bob enjoy one another's company for the remainder of the time that Jack is away. When Jack returns home, he is incensed to find Bob in Carmen's arms and throws Bob out of his house. Back at sea, Bob's submarine collides with an old shipwreck and sinks. Several crew members manage to escape and they alert the Navy. When Jack is called in to rescue the stranded crew, he refuses to help because Bob is on board. Carmen is outraged at Jack's behavior and confronts him, explaining that Bob is not guilty of any wrongdoing. Jack realizes how foolish he has been and rushes to the submarine site, where the trapped men are close to asphyxiation. Attaching an air hose to the submarine, Jack saves Bob and the rest of the crew. After recuperating, Bob and Jack are sent to China, and Carmen returns to the dance hall.

What is great about this movie is the interesting take on loyalty and friendship with the Dolores Del Rio character coming between them but she ultimately decides what is the 'right thing' to do and because of her actions---ends up alone and the guys re-start their friendship.

Good actors in a contrived situation.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 2 February 2019]

I really enjoy the films of Chester Morris and Richard Dix. They both made a few A-pictures and made quite a few B-movies...and their presence always helped these Bs to be a bit better than usual. So, you'd think putting BOTH in an A-picture would spell success...but you'd be wrong in the case of "Devil's Playground". It has an interesting premise but really makes the least of it and is hampered with a plot that is filled with contrived moments.

When the film begins, Jack and Robert (Dix and Morris) are career navy men and deep sea divers. Of the two, Jack is the expert--the deep diver who the Navy calls on when there is trouble. However, they receive different orders--and Jack is able to now be ashore and start a life apart from just the service and Robert is sent to submarine duty. During this time, Robert is given leave and he comes to visit his pal, Jack. But there's a problem...Jack was called to special duty on the night of his honeymoon and isn't available to see his buddy. So, Robert decides to find some female company...and doesn't realize the lady he just picked up and is falling for is Jack's incredibly unfaithful wife (Delored Del Rio). When Jack returns, he finds Robert with his wife and slugs him...and throws him out of his house. What happens next....well, that's why I only give this film a 5....it's THAT predictable and ridiculous!!! See the film....you'll see what I mean.

When Buddies Fall Out

[boblipton · 5/10 · 31 January 2019]

Bluff Richard Dix is the best diver in the Navy's submarine service. Womanizing Chester Morris is his best buddy. Dix is assigned to teaching recruits how to dive, and while he's in San Diego he quickly acquires a house, and a wife: taxi-dancer Dolores Del Rio. Before they can celebrate their marriage, Dix is called back to active duty. Del Rio goes back to taxi-dancing, where she meets Morris. Then Dix comes home.

The movie is neatly divided into three parts: Dix settling into his home and being played for a sucker by Del Rio; Morris and Del Rio; and the final third, in which the submarine Morris goes to the bottom, and the only man who can save the crew is the angry Dix. It's an attempt to combine the two-buddies-and-a-golddigger plot with the submarine rescue story which Columbia had been doing at least since Frank Capra directed SUBMARINE nine years earlier. While the three leads are, as you might expect, terrific, the seam connecting the two types of story shows. Del Rio was a terrific actress, but the role as written is completely unsympathetic, and director Erle Kenton was not the man to bring out the subtleties that might have made this more than a programmer.

Apparently submarines are the devil's playground...

[guswhovian · 6/10 · 25 August 2020]

Jack Dorgan (Richard Dix), the roughest-toughest diver in the navy, dreams of settling down and buying his own house. He eventually marries dance hall girl Carmen (Dolores Del Rio), but when Jack goes off on an assignment, Carmen stars an affair with Jack's best friend Robert Mason (Chester Morris), who is unaware that Carmen is married. However, when Mason is trapped in a submarine, Jack is the only person that can save him...

Based on a silent Frank Capra film, Devil's Playground, despite the eye-catching title, is a poorly written melodrama. Richard Dix and Chester Morris are solid as the leads, while Dolores Del Rio is a bit over-the-top. The script, frankly, is awful. The submarine rescue only takes fifteen minutes, with the rest of the film take up with dull romantic shenanigans. This one's a dud.

Would have been rated higher if writing hadn't been so diffuse...the definition of potboiler, and a decent one in some respects...

[mmipyle · 6/10 · 4 June 2021]

"The Devil's Playground" (1937) is the definition of potboiler. It's a romance/drama/adventure/sailor/submarine/two-timing/buddy movie starring Richard Dix, Delores Del Rio, Chester Morris, and many others, from Lionel Hampton to Ward Bond. Pierre Watkin (listed in the credits as Watkins) plays the submarine captain, and it's a riot seeing Si Jenks playing the telephone installation man in his old-timer mining hat and beard and pipe that he wore in countless Westerns and other films. This is basically a re-make of 1928's "Submarine", a film that was re-made again in 1931 as "Fifty Fathoms Deep", both of which starred Jack Holt. The devil in this version is probably Del Rio as she proudly and ferociously devours men, even marrying Dix, then carrying on with his pal Morris when Dix is away, then...well, I'll leave it at that. The submarine scenes are intense and extremely well-played. The first twenty minutes or so move slowly and don't really get anywhere, or so it seems. A quicker editing, or cutting(s) would have helped immensely. Once the action really begins where Dix, the navy's best deep sea diver, is needed to rescue stranded submarine personnel, including his buddy, Morris, then the show moves like greased lightning. The end nearly seems tacked on. Generally a-jumble, this is edited poorly. Del Rio is super as a bad girl! Morris steals all acting honors. Dix seems very laid back, even bored. I've got him in a few '37 movies, and he's the same in all of them. Don't quite understand (?).

It was a fun movie, but believe it or not, at 74 minutes was 10 minutes too long! Del Rio was worth the watch, if only the writing had been more integrated and less diffuse...

I like Dorgan

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 20 August 2020]

Jack Dorgan is an expert Navy diver. Robert Mason is a submariner. The best friends love carousing while on shore leave. After Mason goes on an extended tour, Dorgan marries dance-hall girl Carmen. She comes between the best friends until an underwater incident forces them back together.

I like Richard Dix playing the loveable lug. He's fun. I want to be his friend. The guys do need to be more different. Mason is a bigger brain than Dorgan but they look a bit too similar. The love triangle would work better with all three people being present. There are some good and some less than good in this story. As for the submarine, the set is too roomy. It's too big to have the claustrophobic tension. The miniature work looks amateurish and the incident is rather contrived. All in all, this is a functional B-movie with some good and I like Dorgan.

An itch needs scratching

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 19 August 2020]

Devil's Playground is the story of two navy pals and the woman who makes a monkey out of both of them.

Dolore Del Rio is said woman and she meets and marries Richard Dix known as the best deep sea diver in the US Navy. She works as a dime a dance dancer in a dance hall.

But just as they're about to do the honeymoon thing Dix gets called away for sea duty. Del Rio goes back to the dance hall rather than sit at home. As fate would have it she runs into Chester Morris who duty has brought to town and he's a man ever ready to help scratch an itch. And Del Rio has been left with an itch that needs some desperate scratching.

I think you can figure the rest of this out. The film is dominated by Del Rio's portrayal of the sly little minx who gets both Dix and Morris's hormones a raging. There are also some nice deep sea rescue sequences performed.

Still it's Del Rio whom you will remember.