"An American Tragedy" was a bit tragic. I mean the quality of the movie that is.
It starred Phillips Holmes as Clyde Griffiths, a young man from meager means who wanted to move up in the world. He had to flee Kansas City when his inebriated friend struck and killed a pedestrian. Clyde and the other passengers were all drunk and he didn't want to stick around to find out the consequences of being a party to vehicular manslaughter.
He made his way to Lycurgus, NY where he became the foreman of a stamping operation and met Roberta Alden (Sylvia Sidney). Though it was against company policy the two had a romantic affair. He pronounced his undying love for her and her for him. Then he met Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee), a pretty girl from money. Roberta became a thing of the past for Clyde, but she wasn't going to go away easily. She was pregnant.
Clyde had to figure out how to deal with Roberta so that he'd be free to date, and possibly marry, Sondra. He decided on murder as a solution.
He took her boating in a desolate lake where he decided he'd kill her. At the last minute he decided not to go through with the plan, but a brief tussle between the two capsized the boat. Roberta couldn't swim. Clyde made the conscious decision not to save her from drowning.
That all happened within the first forty-five minutes of the movie. The next fifty minutes mostly involved a trial; one of the worst cinematic trials in history.
I love courtroom dramas. It's one of my favorite genres of movie, but the courtroom drama in "An American Tragedy" was awful. It contained a lot of long winded loud speeches, posturing, and NOTHING in the way of dramatic testimony or evidence. The only thing dramatic about the trial were the charges. The prosecutor went for first degree murder charges which I thought was overly aggressive. There was hardly enough to support a manslaughter charge, let alone first degree murder. With no witnesses and no proof of a concrete motive, the best a real prosecutor could have hoped for was manslaughter.
Clyde wasn't a good person and he deserved to be punished for how he treated Roberta and allowing her to drown. Still, that doesn't substantiate the death penalty. Watching DA Orville (Irving Pichel) and Clyde's lawyer go at it was exhausting. The movie had so much promise and ended with so much hot air.
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It starred Phillips Holmes as Clyde Griffiths, a young man from meager means who wanted to move up in the world. He had to flee Kansas City when his inebriated friend struck and killed a pedestrian. Clyde and the other passengers were all drunk and he didn't want to stick around to find out the consequences of being a party to vehicular manslaughter.
He made his way to Lycurgus, NY where he became the foreman of a stamping operation and met Roberta Alden (Sylvia Sidney). Though it was against company policy the two had a romantic affair. He pronounced his undying love for her and her for him. Then he met Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee), a pretty girl from money. Roberta became a thing of the past for Clyde, but she wasn't going to go away easily. She was pregnant.
Clyde had to figure out how to deal with Roberta so that he'd be free to date, and possibly marry, Sondra. He decided on murder as a solution.
He took her boating in a desolate lake where he decided he'd kill her. At the last minute he decided not to go through with the plan, but a brief tussle between the two capsized the boat. Roberta couldn't swim. Clyde made the conscious decision not to save her from drowning.
That all happened within the first forty-five minutes of the movie. The next fifty minutes mostly involved a trial; one of the worst cinematic trials in history.
I love courtroom dramas. It's one of my favorite genres of movie, but the courtroom drama in "An American Tragedy" was awful. It contained a lot of long winded loud speeches, posturing, and NOTHING in the way of dramatic testimony or evidence. The only thing dramatic about the trial were the charges. The prosecutor went for first degree murder charges which I thought was overly aggressive. There was hardly enough to support a manslaughter charge, let alone first degree murder. With no witnesses and no proof of a concrete motive, the best a real prosecutor could have hoped for was manslaughter.
Clyde wasn't a good person and he deserved to be punished for how he treated Roberta and allowing her to drown. Still, that doesn't substantiate the death penalty. Watching DA Orville (Irving Pichel) and Clyde's lawyer go at it was exhausting. The movie had so much promise and ended with so much hot air.
Free on Odnoklassniki.