It's interesting that Columbia Pictures would try to make a bank a sympathetic victim in this movie. I don't think you can be more tone deaf. That's like Elon Musk being made into a sympathetic character for losing a few billion dollars.
There was a movie in which the closure of a bank was rather tragic, and that was Marie Dressler's movie "Prosperity." In "Prosperity" Marie Dressler owned a small bank that served her small community. A misunderstanding caused a run on her bank and she liquidated her own assets to try to give every customer their money.
In "An American Tragedy" Union National Bank is a large bank with shareholders, an executive board, and millions in assets, yet we were supposed to weep because the bank's president, Thomas A. Dickson (Walter Huston), was so distraught about it going under.
All the troubles began when Union National Bank was robbed. The robbery was set up by the cashier Cyril Cluett (Gavin Gordon) who was coerced to do so by a gangster named Dude Finlay (Robert Ellis). Cluett owed Finlay $50,000 and he certainly didn't have it. If he set it up to where Finlay could rob the bank then they'd be all square.
Finlay also told Cluett to have a good alibi. He told him to make sure he was with a credible person. For that Cluett chose Dickson's wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson). She was an easy pick. She was lonely and Cluett was young and charming. He charmed her into going out with him--you know the old society-lonely-wife-goes-around-with-handsome-bachelor routine--which caused a whole other set of problems.
With Walter Huston in the movie I expected some sermonizing and exhorting the viewers to their patriotic duty or something like that. He was the moral voice in this picture, as I expected, but it was more of a lecture to banks and bank execs to invest in the people. It was like this movie was hand picked by FDR to help promote the New Deal.
Although there was some excitement and suspense, I couldn't get totally behind it. While Dickson (Walter Huston) was preaching to bank execs about "faith" and believing in people, the movie was also preaching to the American public about believing in banks. In other words, it would take banks (preferably large ones) and people to get, or keep, the economy going. I have a natural mistrust of any message that exhorts people to give to banks or any other corporation.
Also of note in the film were Pat O'Brien, Constance Cummings, and Sterling Holloway. Pat and Constance have starred in movies themselves while Sterling is an unmistakable bit character in just about everything.
Free on Internet Archive.
There was a movie in which the closure of a bank was rather tragic, and that was Marie Dressler's movie "Prosperity." In "Prosperity" Marie Dressler owned a small bank that served her small community. A misunderstanding caused a run on her bank and she liquidated her own assets to try to give every customer their money.
In "An American Tragedy" Union National Bank is a large bank with shareholders, an executive board, and millions in assets, yet we were supposed to weep because the bank's president, Thomas A. Dickson (Walter Huston), was so distraught about it going under.
All the troubles began when Union National Bank was robbed. The robbery was set up by the cashier Cyril Cluett (Gavin Gordon) who was coerced to do so by a gangster named Dude Finlay (Robert Ellis). Cluett owed Finlay $50,000 and he certainly didn't have it. If he set it up to where Finlay could rob the bank then they'd be all square.
Finlay also told Cluett to have a good alibi. He told him to make sure he was with a credible person. For that Cluett chose Dickson's wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson). She was an easy pick. She was lonely and Cluett was young and charming. He charmed her into going out with him--you know the old society-lonely-wife-goes-around-with-handsome-bachelor routine--which caused a whole other set of problems.
With Walter Huston in the movie I expected some sermonizing and exhorting the viewers to their patriotic duty or something like that. He was the moral voice in this picture, as I expected, but it was more of a lecture to banks and bank execs to invest in the people. It was like this movie was hand picked by FDR to help promote the New Deal.
Although there was some excitement and suspense, I couldn't get totally behind it. While Dickson (Walter Huston) was preaching to bank execs about "faith" and believing in people, the movie was also preaching to the American public about believing in banks. In other words, it would take banks (preferably large ones) and people to get, or keep, the economy going. I have a natural mistrust of any message that exhorts people to give to banks or any other corporation.
Also of note in the film were Pat O'Brien, Constance Cummings, and Sterling Holloway. Pat and Constance have starred in movies themselves while Sterling is an unmistakable bit character in just about everything.
Free on Internet Archive.