This may be one of Roger's most "acceptable" films for modern audiences...(yes Louise Beavers is referred to as "Mammy"...but she is one of the funniest, smartest, and bossiest character's in the film...and this wonderful actress is delightful in the role...).
There is as much pathos and human drama as there is roguish humor...and Rogers gives a deeply affecting performance as the wronged man who has become a bum while searching for the family he always knew he was unworthy of...but couldn't stand to live without.
His scenes with the pretty Marian Nixon are very moving....He uses very subtle gestures and words to convey the desire to be part of her life and the knowledge that he never can be without disrupting her charmed existence.
Dick Powell also comes off well playing with the homespun master....handling suspense and romance with a stalwart conviction that he was seldom able to display during his reedy Warner brother's tenor days...(he seems much more like the later Tough guy Powell of the 40's here)...
The Restoration seems to have added a few minutes to the running time...(the film runs 77.17 on disc...including a few seconds of exit music...)...and it appears that the technicians have wiped away as many of the scratches and glitches as they can...(the soundtrack...with a great deal of hissing and humming...is still in pretty rough shape...)...
Anyone unfamiliar with this unique (and VERY American) star should check out the wit and wisdom that made him such an icon in some of this country's darkest hours.
(I felt I had to correct a misstatement that I read in a previous comment on this title. Powell plays Nixon's STEP brother NOT half brother...a major plot point since their characters are the film's romantic leads).
There is as much pathos and human drama as there is roguish humor...and Rogers gives a deeply affecting performance as the wronged man who has become a bum while searching for the family he always knew he was unworthy of...but couldn't stand to live without.
His scenes with the pretty Marian Nixon are very moving....He uses very subtle gestures and words to convey the desire to be part of her life and the knowledge that he never can be without disrupting her charmed existence.
Dick Powell also comes off well playing with the homespun master....handling suspense and romance with a stalwart conviction that he was seldom able to display during his reedy Warner brother's tenor days...(he seems much more like the later Tough guy Powell of the 40's here)...
The Restoration seems to have added a few minutes to the running time...(the film runs 77.17 on disc...including a few seconds of exit music...)...and it appears that the technicians have wiped away as many of the scratches and glitches as they can...(the soundtrack...with a great deal of hissing and humming...is still in pretty rough shape...)...
Anyone unfamiliar with this unique (and VERY American) star should check out the wit and wisdom that made him such an icon in some of this country's darkest hours.
(I felt I had to correct a misstatement that I read in a previous comment on this title. Powell plays Nixon's STEP brother NOT half brother...a major plot point since their characters are the film's romantic leads).