Grand Exit

Grand Exit (1935)

Runtime: 68 minutes

Directed by: Erle C. Kenton

Starring: Edmund Lowe, Ann Sothern, Onslow Stevens, Robert Middlemass, Wyrley Birch

From: Columbia

Here's a short review from me; makes sense as I saw a short movie. I'll give a spoiler and say that tomorrow night's review will be of a film I've seen many times in my life and it is one featuring Harrison Ford. As of now there's still differing opinions on his condition but as someone who has seen his films since I was real little, I really hope he ends up being fine.

Basically, I came to watch this as I saw it was on primetime last night on TCM, part of a month long deal where each Wednesday night they spotlight the films of Ann Sothern. I looked online and saw that it was barely watched here on Letterboxd and less than 100 people on the IMDb have given it a vote so I figured I should give it a shot.

The plot is that an arsonist is burning down buildings insured by a certain company. That company brings back a wild womanizer (Tom Fletcher, played by Edmund Lowe) who loves the bottle and isn't always easy to work with but as he's “the best” arson investigator they have to deal with him. A young lady (Sothern) always seems to be around when they start... is she the one starting them; is Tom Fletcher the guy behind those acts, wanting his job back? While there's a moment or two that doesn't make much sense (in an alternate universe where this movie was longer I doubt those plot holes would be there), it's not too egregious.

I actually don't have too much to say about this. It's average all around, from the story to the sleuthing (for being so highly praised early in the film, Fletcher sometimes comes off as ineffectual), from the humor-there's a running gag involving him having a revolving door of secretaries which is barely a subplot and it kind of seems pointless-to just about everything else. At least it's short at 68 minutes and the two leads are charming, which helps. It's just that there's no real need to see this unless you are a fan of either Edmund Lowe or Ann Sothern.