Runtime: 84 minutes
Directed by: Cecil B. DeMille
Starring: Charles Bickford, Judith Allen, Richard Cromwell, Harry Green, Bradley Page
From: Paramount
Where do I even begin with this loony motion picture? OK, I'll mention the one plot point mentioned everywhere: there is A PIT FULL OF RATS that someone is hung by rope over!
This is part of the Criterion Channel's Pre-Code Paramount collection. I was bemused when I read the plot description they had up, then someone I follow here on Letterboxd put up a review that enticed me due to the sheer insanity that was mentioned. Oh, and this is from Cecil B. DeMille, who from said review I now know has made multiple mad movies I need to put in my figurative queue as while I did not love This Day and Age, it doesn't mean I wasn't wildly entertained by all the bizarre events and moments that paraded by me... and at one point in the final act there was a literal parade that was held by high school students who sung marching band tunes! You see, if I gave a full spoiler review of this, many will likely think I am making it all or some of it up as a gag. As I never do such things anyhow I'll give some basics of why this is so wild.
Basically, a gangster is pissed that a Jewish tailor refuses to pay him protection money. Thankfully there is no anti-Semitism present and in fact because he is located right by a high school, most of those students must love him. After all, when the tailor is murdered those high schoolers (some of whom hope to be involved w/ local politics) are disillusioned when he is found not guilty. After another death they become so pissed that not only do they get the students from the other high schools in the city involved, they become vigilantes and put the gangster on trial in their own kangaroo court as if they had just seen the movie M! At the time, people did accuse this of being fascist.
Here are some other plot points:
* An underaged girl is used as bait against the gangster's bodyguard, only known as Toledo
* There is a high school love triangle
* Not only is there a long camera shot from the POV of a gym locker room, another is from a grave being lowered into the ground
* The gangster owns a nightclub which among other things has a roller skating trio act perform
* This does have a few recognizable names; Charles Bickford plays the gangster, John Carradine is in this for about 30 seconds and as the district attorney is Charles Middleton, i.e. Ming from the Flash Gordon serials
* In addition, lol to how I know the transfer was directly taken from an MCA Universal Home Video release in the 90's (this was one of many Paramount titles that Universal has due to the former selling them to the latter for money). That's because the first thing you see on the stream is the MCA Universal Home Video logo I saw on many VHS tapes in the 90's. The transfer itself isn't dirty... it just looks VHS-quality.
In recent years there has been a rise in “the youth” becoming interested in fighting against injustice; what a bizarre example of that This Day and Age is. I can't say it's a great movie—however it was wildly entertaining and I need to experience more movies from De Mille if they are as outrageous as this.
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