Review of Let 'Er Go Gallegher

Let 'Er Go, Gallegher (1928) is currently only available in its cut-down 60 minutes Kodascope version. The movie is actually listed as 5,888 feet, so even at sound speed, you're looking at 65 minutes. Fortunately, it runs quite well (if a little too speedily in the chase sequences). Elliott Clawson made a good job of expanding the 1890 short story, "Gallegher: A Newspaper Story", by Richard Harding Davis, while the direction was in the capable hands of Elmer Clifton. The movie is always great to look at, thanks to the noirishly black-as-midnight cinematography by Lucien Andriot and a good transfer to DVD by Alpha. Junior Coghlan sometimes comes across as a little too pugnacious for his own good, but this quality serves him well at the climax when he corners Ivan Lebedeff's menacing villain. Harrison Ford does a good job in the now hackneyed role of a tosspot newspaper man (but maybe it was fresher back in 1895 or even 1928?), while Elinor Fair (costumed by Adrian, although you'd never know it) does her best in a nothing part as the tosspot's love interest. Production values are superb. It's an "A" picture all the way, from the flourishing Cecil B. De Mille stable.