This Day and Age (1933) User Reviews

If it wasn't for those pesky kids...

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 6/10 · 8 November 2003]

Cecil B. DeMille had a long and mutually profitable relationship with Paramount, interrupted by a brief falling-out with Adolph Zukor, during which DeMille made a few films at MGM in the early sound era ... including his weirdest and most atypical film, 'Madam Satan'. 'This Day and Age' was made shortly after DeMille's return to Paramount; it's only slightly less weird (and slightly less atypical of DeMille) than 'Madam Satan'.

In the early 1930s, a few Hollywood films took the bizarre view that, since organised crime had reached such high proportions in the USA, the only sensible solution was for civil liberties to be suspended so that criminals could be punished without the minor inconvenience of the Bill of Rights. 'Gabriel Over the White House' is probably the best-known (and most excessive) example of that brief genre. 'This Day and Age', made the same year, takes a similar tone: this is arguably DeMille's most Fascist film.

SPOILERS FOLLOW. The action takes place in a typical California city, where the high-school boys like to spend their time getting their trousers pressed in the local shop of their friend Herman, a Jewish tailor who feeds them hummus while they sit in his shop in their underpants. (Herman is played by Harry Green, who often played extremely offensive Jewish stereotypes, but who is more sympathetic than usual here.) Local gangster Garrett (Charles Bickford, very good) has been leaning on Herman to pay protection money. When Herman refuses, Garrett blows up Herman's shop (with Herman inside) while a roller-skating act at Garrett's speakeasy provides his alibi.

Three of the local boys decide to break into Garrett's hideout to find evidence linking him to Herman's murder. There's a clever scene transition: as the three lads break into the building, we cut to a floor show at Garrett's club, where chorus girls are singing 'Three Blind Mice'. Garrett's goons catch the boys, and one boy gets shot dead.

Instead of going to the cops, the surviving boys decide to catch Garrett and his thugs by themselves. From this point, the film becomes wildly implausible yet increasingly fascinating. Refreshingly, one of the boys in the high-school class is black: even more refreshingly, he's well-spoken and studious. Regrettably, this teenager must do a 'yassuh' routine as a shoeshine boy in order to help trap Garrett. (I consider this painful sequence a fair reflection of social roles at the time, not a flaw of this film.)

The most implausible part of the plot occurs when Don, the leader of the boys, recruits his good-girl teenage sister (with the unfortunate forename Gay) to come the slut and seduce one of Garrett's henchmen. Shortly before he goes for the jail-bait, this gangster helps himself to an olive while remarking 'I like my olives green,' (Oh, such subtle symbolism.) Just as he's about to do the deed with Gay, he suddenly learns that she's a virgin... leading him to a change of heart and the remark: 'I like my olives green... but I don't pick 'em myself.' Let me see if I have it straight: this guy has no compunction about seducing underage girls, but only providing they're not virgins. I found this unlikely, yet I'm impressed that one of the villains turned out to have a streak of decency. The screenwriter could have taken the easy way out by making all the villains one-dimensional characters.

John Carradine appears briefly in the opening scene of this film, but he has very little to do, and Carradine cultists will be disappointed. A few other veteran character actors are likewise on hand here, yet likewise neglected. I was intrigued to see someone named 'Frank Tinney, Junior' in the cast list. I assume that he was the son of Frank Tinney, a major vaudeville comedian/monologist who did almost no film work. Tinney (senior) had an unsavoury reputation in New York theatre circles, because of his penchant for visiting bordellos where he (shall we say) 'damaged the goods'. That sort of sleazy behaviour is very similar to some of what's depicted onscreen in 'This Day and Age'. I'll rate this well-made monstrosity 6 points out of 10.

A Most Unlikely Film From the Cecil B. DeMille Archives!

[malvernp · 7/10 · 15 April 2022]

Cecil B. DeMille was one of Hollywood's most famous filmmakers, and his legendary career spans the period from its very origins (The Squaw Man 1914) to his last film in 1956--three years before his death at the age of 78 (The Ten Commandments). Most of his movies are well known---some (of course) better than others. Several have achieved classic status. But in this great man's large body of work, he made a few films that for one reason or another have slipped into obscurity and generally disappeared from the public's consciousness. One item in this category is This Day and Age (TDAA) (1933).

TDAA was the vehicle DeMille chose to direct immediately after making his blockbuster The Sign of the Cross (1932)---a story somewhat similar to Mervyn LeRoy's later spectacle Quo Vadis (1951). While TDAA falls within that small time period between two of DeMille's most celebrated "big" cinematic achievements (The Sign of the Cross and Cleopatra (1934)), it emerges as a "small" film that deals with contemporary social issues rather than epic adventure or historical pageantry. The problems of today's society generally constituted an area that did not particularly interest DeMille (the original version of The Ten Commandments was a notable exception) and TDAA does not resemble most of the films that the public had grown to expect from him over the years. He usually subscribed to Samuel Goldwyn's reputed observation that if a filmmaker wanted to send the audience a message, he would be better advised to do this via Western Union.

TDAA has a large cast of mostly twentyish aged actors who---true to Hollywood tradition---play high school students with varying degrees of believability. It has an ending that will remind some viewers of Fritz Lang's classic M (1931)and possibly William Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident (1943). And it did touch upon some very substantial issues of the day: corruption of public officials, the negative effect of organized crime on "civilized society," the influence on young people of a lack of appropriate adult role models in shaping their behavior, how vigilante justice might be administered in attempting to resolve a breakdown of law and order in small town life, how heroism often arises in the most unlikely citizens in a time of crisis---among others. In determining the outcome of this story, a number of critics have accused DeMille of incorporating some elements of fascism. Whether true or not, TDAA is thought-provoking and quite interesting while it spins DeMille's vision of how in the end, the inherent good in most folks can conquer their worst tendencies to bring order out of chaos---particularly when led by inspired young people. It may be naive, but it is also sincere.

While Goldwyn could have been right in his message observation, DeMille offers us a film that makes a respectable argument for an opposing opinion. TDAA is hard to find, but it is currently available on the Criterion Channel. Check it out!

Beyond Good And Evil

[boblipton · 7/10 · 4 March 2024]

Gangster Charles Bickford shoots and kills tailor Harry Green in front of a high-school witness, but the rules of evidence confound justice. The kids at the high school are upset; Green was a popular fellow. Realizing that the law as practiced in the courts is no match for gangsters, they decide on a plan to kidnap him and hold a trial of their own, even if it requires getting the truth out of him by strangling him with a hanging rope, or allowing Bickford's henchman, Bradley Page, to rape Judith Allen to distract him from rescuing his boss.

There's little doubt that director Cecil B. Demille took Fritz Lang's M and converted it into a melodrama of youth pushed beyond endurance. In doing so, he has created a movie that is in favor of that fine old American tradition, lynching. Demille and screenwriter Bartlett Cormack have stacked all the evidence on the lynch mob's side, and made them handsome and well-groomed young Americans of every background, one devoid of every irony of Lang's movie.

I have seen two or three other pre-code movies which come down on the side of lynch mobs, but never an A picture directed by that director of epics of every type. It's an astonishing work.

Probably the rarest of DeMille's talkies.

[reptilicus · 22 May 2001]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** A Cecil B. DeMille film that no one remembers? You bet, and this is it! Still under copyright to Paramount Studios this film is not technically available commercially but luckily there is a print at the Library Of Congress and they'll be happy to screen it for you if you make an appointment with them some 2 weeks in advance (see what I go through to write these things!) Originally I wanted to see this because it is one of John Carradine's earliest roles and some reference books list him as being the "graduating class valedictorian". I found that amazing because in 1933 Long John was about 27 and to see him play a high school student really piqued my curiosity. Well it turns out he plays Mr. Abernathy, the assistant principal and he gets billed as "John Peter Richmond". It is by no means his only DeMille movie, he is heard but not seen in SIGN OF THE CROSS (1932) and THE CRUSADES (1933) and you can spot him if you look quickly in CLEOPATRA (1934). Now as to the movie itself. The story takes place in Smalltown, USA where the local tailor is idolised by the school kids. When the nice old man is murdered on orders from the local gang boss (Charles Bickford) the kids find clues the cops overlooked but the man is acquitted anyway for lack of evidence. Knowing he is guilty the kids appeal to the adults in charge but all they get is one lecture after another about how they don't understand the adult world and how they will learn for themselves when they take their place in the real world. (I fully expected one of the old fogey's to say "Tut tut my boy." but no one does, thank goodness.) When the kids try to get the goods on the man themselves they only succeed in getting one of their group framed on a charge of attempted murder. This pushes the clean cut kids over the edge and they decide real fast that since fighting clean does not work it's time to fight dirty.

WARNING WARNING! I have to talk about how the movie ends but it is vital that I do so to properly analyse this film. If you don't want to spoil it for yourself skip the next paragraph. If you want to learn more, by all means continue.

The kids from all the high schools work together to kidnap the gang boss. The local "good girl" pretends to be a trollop to distract the bosses right hand man so the boys can grab him. (Don't worry, she gets away before the lecherous gunsel can do anything to her!) Taking him to a construction site they resort to the sort of brutality usually used by the gangsters themselves. The gang boss is suspended by ropes over a pit of live, very hungry rats and slowly lowered into it until he confesses to the murder and the framing of the boy. His gang, however, shows up armed to the teeth and not about the hesitate machine gunning the kids if they don't release their boss. Luckily for once the cops arrive on time and this time there is enough evidence to put everyone away for a long time.

OKAY, ALL OF YOU WHO DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW HOW THE MOVIE ENDED CAN REJOIN US NOW.

Admittedly DeMille overdoes it a bit here. Carrying the trussed up gangster into town on a palate the kids sing a medley of patriotic songs and the sequence goes on a little too long, ultimately blunting the impact of the powerful scene preceeding it. This detraction is not enough to ruin the whole film though. Performances are very good. You'll spot Charles Middleton (2 years away from immortality as Ming The Merciless in FLASH GORDON) on the side of the law as a DA. Watch for character actors like Guy Usher (DEVIL BAT), Paul Hurst (ISLAND OF LOST SOULS) and Billy Gilbert in supporting roles. Yes, it is a hard film to find, but well worth all the effort.

Exceedingly rare De Mille

[kevinolzak · 7/10 · 22 December 2013]

1933's "This Day and Age" was certainly an unusual choice for director Cecil B. DeMille, a modern tale of vigilante justice sandwiched between more typical historical assignments such as "The Sign of the Cross" and "Cleopatra." Charles Bickford gets top billing as Louis Garrett, a ruthless gangster well known to authorities, due to his ability to beat the rap every time. After he murders an elderly Jewish tailor much loved at the local high school, then putting a neat frame on an innocent student, the entire student body bands together in an intricate plot to gain a rock solid confession. First, lovely Gay Merrick (Judith Allen) must use her seductive wiles to distract Garrett's number one bodyguard (Bradley Page), while the others kidnap his boss, tie him up, and hold him prisoner over a pit filled with rats! (one wonders how they discovered this weakness, but it's not important). Most of the featured youngsters didn't enjoy successful careers, while certain uncredited ones remained quite busy over the decades, especially Donald Barry and Sidney Miller. Richard Cromwell's career reached a high point here, while Judith Allen went on to play W. C. Fields' daughter in "The Old-Fashioned Way" (reduced to bit parts by 1940). The most interesting billing goes to 'John Peter Richmond,' who would soon permanently change his name to 'John Carradine,' seen (with moustache) only in the opening moments as Assistant Principal Abernathy, who simply announces the names of our most prominent students (this was the only time in the three years he used that name that he was actually billed on screen, 22nd out of 23 players listed). Carradine actually debuted with Richard Cromwell in 1930's "Tol'able David," where he was listed as 'Peter Richmond'; his birth name was 'Richmond Reed Carradine,' but for some reason his mother always called him 'Peter!' Apart from 1956's "The Ten Commandments" (DeMille's last film), Carradine's early work for the director included voiceovers and bits in "The Sign of the Cross," "Cleopatra," and "The Crusades." Other similar efforts from the early 30s included "The Cat's-Paw," where mayor Harold Lloyd conquers big city corruption, and especially "Gabriel Over the White House," where the President himself (Walter Huston) takes the law into his own hands.

Charles Bickford and John Carradine

[marthawilcox1831 · 3/10 · 14 July 2014]

Great performance from Charles Bickford, and a cameo appearance by John Carradine at the beginning of the film with a moustache. Apart from seeing how student power can make things work, I didn't think much of the characters. It doesn't mean that the acting wasn't any good, it's just that the writing of the characters lacked substance. Because Bickford would go on to appear in 'Tarzan's New York Adventure' and 'Reap the Wild Wind' in the same year, this film is significant because Cecil B. DeMille could draw out a performance from Bickford that would set him on the road to antagonistic characters. This film isn't story led, it is performance led. You learn nothing from the story, but it is a good calling card for Bickford and indeed Carradine.

Pre-code cinema at its most radical.

[mark.waltz · 10/10 · 11 May 2019]

It is obvious that in 1933, this social drama rattled some very powerful feathers, and 85 years later probably does the same thing to those who take it seriously. For everybody else, it may be a laughable relic, but there are some very serious messages buried deep within the Cecil B De Mille drama that does not require the use of tons of extras carrying swords or building pyramids or railroads. It is a story of how Injustice leads to desperate reactions and how a bully can be taken down and turned into a crying coward.

The excellent Charles Bickford is at his most despicable as an outwardly charming but inwardly evil crime boss who gets away with murder and as a result, murders again. It is obvious that the first murder was provocated, but his cockiness led to his committing the second murder. A group of college kids led by Richard Cromwell, upset by the murder of one of their own, take matters into their own hands because nothing legally can be done, and kidnap him to frighten him into making a confession. of course, they are committing crimes in order to do so, but if the results they get work, they'll mostly get a minimal sentence.

This is a crafty social drama that makes you hate the leading character from the very beginning and root for the young men fighting against corruption. Bradley Page is his usual creepy character, bodyguard to Bickford who is distracted by one of the college girls (Judith Allen) while Cromwell and gang's scheme is being put into motion. The last 20 minutes of this film are extremely intense and even Frank Capra couldn't have come up with a more emotional ending. It is superb in every way, perhaps not the solution to dealing with such evil, but it gives insight into the real character beneath the power that corrupts and destroys souls.

Naive

[view_and_review · 1/10 · 6 January 2024]

I made it through thirty-eight minutes of this pollyanna, Pleasantville, Mayberry movie in which the senses of the goody-goody teenage boys of North High School were offended. It depicted such a starkly childlike rendition of justice that I couldn't take it anymore.

Across the street from North High was a laundry and press shop in which the owner was killed by Louis Garrett (Charles Bickford), the leader of "The Association." It was a criminal enterprise that was extorting all of the local businesses. The press shop owner, Herman (Harry Green), refused to "join the association" even in the face of threats. He naively stood upon the fact that America is "a free country" and as long as he doesn't do anything illegal he should be free to operate his business without being harmed.

That's true. In theory. Not true in practice.

Whatever the case, Herman was shot and killed. While Louie (Charles Bickford), the gangster, was tapping the till one of the high school kids came in. He saw Herman dead and Louie stealing money. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

We, as the viewers, know that Louie shot Herman and under what circumstances Louie shot Herman. The kid, however, does not know for a fact that Louie shot Herman. Still, he tells all of his friends that Louie shot Herman and it is taken as an established fact. To them, it's an open and shut case. They should be able to tell the police, who would then arrest Louie, who'd go to trial where the kid would act as a witness, the jury would convict him, and Louie would get the chair.

Simple.

But it's not. And nor should it be, but "This Day and Age" made it seem as though it was a great travesty of justice that things weren't so simple. As though the youngsters were the only sane folks while all of the adults were either crooked or powerless to do anything. We were given a POV from the perspective of the youth with a clear message that this is how things should be.

Johnny saw the man with the gun. The man with the gun must've been the murderer. Johnny is an honest kid. The man should go to prison.

But it didn't go like that. The judge and lawyer were talking about procedure, precedence, presumption of innocence, and other legal jargon that didn't add up to the innocent teens. In their minds the justice system should be so simple that teens should be able to adjudicate the whole thing. And this is where the movie started to lose me.

As much as they were crying about the fact they couldn't get a conviction I couldn't help but thinking about the myriad times in history when a conviction was acquired on the most tenuous of evidence because the defendant was a poor person or a person of color (who was usually also poor). "Good," "honest" boys like them have been able to finger a defendant and put them away.

Still, I didn't stop watching. I was waiting for the moment in which sound reasoning would enter into the film because the fact of the matter is; Steve (Richard Cromwell), the kid, never saw Louie shoot Herman. Yes, by putting together circumstantial evidence we could draw that conclusion, but Steve and his pals were running around as though he'd seen the trigger being pulled.

After the judge dropped the charges due to lack of evidence a group of boys decided they would break into Louie's place and get the evidence themselves.

What!?

What dairy farm did they grow up on where they think it's safe to break into the home of a killer? They know he shot and killed a guy, so what if he caught one of them in his place?

They went through with the plan and then something extremely odd happened that I don't even think the writer could explain.

They succeeded in breaking into Louie's place, but like the young idiots they were, they told other people about it. One person they told was a girl that two of the boys were fawning over. She, in attempts to defend the character of Steve, told another boy. He, thinking it was a joke and looking for a means of chumming up to Louie, decided to tell Louie!

At this point I was incensed. I just couldn't take it. It was so illogical that my brain was going on the fritz trying to understand. Even if he believed it was a joke, why in the world would he tell Louie?? At best Louie laughs it off, at worst Louie kills one or all of them for even thinking of doing such a thing.

He did kill one kid when he decided to investigate this supposed "joke" and found them snooping through his belongings. That's when I said, "Enough's enough. I'm done," then turned it off.

Free on YouTube.

Ah, Those days before the Warren Court

[theowinthrop · 8/10 · 6 June 2010]

As pointed out in an earlier review on this film, it was one of several in the early to mid 1930s that felt the public had it with civil and criminal rules and regulations, the laws of evidence, and the Bill of Rights. Before we get too huffy about this, recent changes on the Supreme Court, since the days of Chief Justice Earl Warren, have shown that this area is flexible (i.e. the criminal defendants are not getting the free ride Warren supposedly gave them). Recently a decision turned Miranda on it's head - apparently since the warning is so well known if the defendant does not request it it is considered waived. On the other hand, Justice Scalia actually has written some really good opinions regarding limits to police search and seizure.

The state of procedure, evidence, and criminal defense protection was in flux in 1933. Perfect example of it's limitations (and on target in this film): Al Capone was sent to Atlanta Penetentiary (and later to Alcatraz) for tax evasion in 1931 - yet his gang was one of the bloodiest in American history. No murders were legally (i.e., in a court of law) tied to "Big Al", so the government got him through a back door. This led to the cynical comment : "You can murder anyone in the U.S.A, but don't fail to pay your income taxes!"

Another way to show this flux period in our legal rights was the Supreme Court decision in 1932 by Anthony Scalia's 1930's model, the brilliant, conservative jurist George Sutherland. Normally opposed to certain innovations in the Roosevelt New Deal, Sutherland was a libertarian and a fiercely devoted lover of our individual rights. He wrote the Scottsboro Decision in 1932 regarding the legal lynching directed at the Scottsboro defendants (all young African-Americans) in an Alabama rape case. Sutherland made it clear that all defendants in criminal cases deserved representation in court, and rejected the death sentences passed on the defendants who had no adequate representation. Next time you read of the "Four Reactionary Horseman" on the 1930s Court, please remember to separate Sutherland a bit. He wasn't a real reactionary like his colleague James MacReynolds.

One keeps in mind the flux of our legal system, even though Judge George Barbier shows a student the huge number of statutes and rules that governed courts in 1933. Civil Procedure rules for Federal Courts were not even settled until the 1938 case of ERIE v. THOMPKINS. With all this confusions rats frequently fell through the holes of the law, making the public cynical about how really good the law was. If they had watched what a really well oiled organized law could degenerate into at the time (Stalin's Russia; Hitler's Germany) they might have realized things were not as bad as they thought.

THIS DAY AND AGE is about how the children of a town's high schools learn the limitation of the law the hard way when a friend of their's (Harry Green, a tailor in this film) is first bombed by a member of Charles Bickford's gang, and then shot by Bickford in a confrontation in the ruined shop. The leading student in the nearby high school happens to wanders into the middle of the incident, and is knocked out. Bickford does not shoot him because he has set up a semi-clever alibi with a double in a dark corner of his road house. The kid happens to tell the police and Bickford is arrested, but his high priced lawyer makes mince-meant out of the student, and Bickford has that alibi. As the D.A. (Charles Middleton, of all people) tells the kid Bickford was likely to slip through their case from the start.

The kids begin organizing in small groups, but one goes badly with Bickford realizing they are looking for evidence and shooting one as a burglar (framing the second for the murder). Then the fed up students decide to go full throttle. One romances Bickford's right hand man to keep him away while Bickford is kidnapped by the student bodies of three high schools, and forced to confess or be dumped into a pit of real rats. When the police arrive (and surprise Bickford's gang) the Chief of Police deputizes the students (and ignores Bickford's griping about the rats). Bickford is brought into town by the students and police, and his confession is signed before Barbier and Middleton.

DeMille did only a handful of social commentary films in his career. His touch is evident, especially handling the scenes of Bickford's confrontation with the high schoolers. Not quite as intricate as his parting of the Red Sea (THE TEN COMMANDMENTS). The most juvenile aspect of his film planning is the various "acts" put on by Bickford at the Road House: Roller Skating trios, and dance girls dancing to various nursery rhymes. But some of the nursery rhymes (like Three Blind Mice, when the kids are organizing, and Bickford is beginning to worry) are not bad contrapuntal points to the action. The film suggests that DeMille might have tried more social commentary films - but perhaps wisely stuck to history and spectaculars.

Bickford works under a bigger fish called, "the little fellow". We only see this fellow once, when everything is on the verge of collapse, sending orders for play tickets and a boat out of the country. But we only see him from the back. One comment he makes is curious. He asks for a boat to Greece. In 1933 the audience would have known how Samuel Insull was pulled off a freighter to Greece when fleeing indictment.

John Carridine plays an assistant principal here - quite a different role from his mad scientists or "Bluebeard" the puppeteer. But how can I ever get the image from my memory of Billy Gilbert (the manager of the Road House) as a minion handling machine guns out to Bickford's gang?

These Kids Are All Right

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 17 May 2010]

This Day And Age is a rarely seen cult classic about high school youth during the beginning of the Roosevelt years and was directed by Cecil B. DeMille. In his sound period DeMille never did stories like this, but he was not totally unfamiliar with them. His last silent film The Godless Girl involves some Christian kids and jocks muscling an atheist club in their high school because atheism equals hedonism in their's and the Victorian Cecil B. DeMille's eyes.

But there's no mistaking the gangster threat to this small town. As Prohibition is ending, the local mob is trying other rackets and is using the old protection scam under the guise of a guild for craft workers like tailors. When Harry Green refuses to knuckle under, chief enforcer Charles Bickford kills him in front of student leader Richard Cromwell. Later on a set alibi and smart lawyering by defense attorney Warner Richmond discredits Cromwell on the witness stand. After that Bickford kills another of their friends Michael Stuart who was breaking in and frames another Oscar Rudolph for the crime.

In a plot situations that was later used in the Dead End kids film Angels Wash Their Faces, several of the kids are given honorary government jobs for a day like mayor, district attorney, and judge. Using that power plus the charisma of leader Cromwell the kids from several schools unite, there's a few hundred of them giving us the crowd scenes that DeMille films all have. They kidnap Bickford and use some persuasion to get at the truth.

It wouldn't be a DeMille film without a little sex thrown in as well. Judith Allen gets the job to pique the interest of Bickford's bodyguard Bradley Page and separate him from Bickford which she does accomplish.

This Day And Age was accused of promoting fascism which charge DeMille strongly denied. But there's no doubt here that mob rule has definitely taken over this town and traditional law and order has broken down.

By the way, the real mayor of the town played by Samuel S. Hinds has a very interesting political perspective on the situation when the fertilizer hits the cooling unit. You'll have to see the film to get what I'm talking about if it's ever broadcast.

And let's hope TCM does broadcast it.