Just out of prison, Benny Horowitz tries to go straight. Things are complicated by his former girlfriend and his former gangster buddies.Just out of prison, Benny Horowitz tries to go straight. Things are complicated by his former girlfriend and his former gangster buddies.Just out of prison, Benny Horowitz tries to go straight. Things are complicated by his former girlfriend and his former gangster buddies.
Photos
Ernie Alexander
- Milk Wagon Driver
- (uncredited)
Jack Baxley
- Grocery Store Proprietor
- (uncredited)
Bonita
- Woman Assisting the Clapmans
- (uncredited)
Hazel Boyne
- Bit Role
- (uncredited)
Lillian Castle
- Woman Assisting the Kaplans
- (uncredited)
Jack Cheatham
- Mechanic
- (uncredited)
R. Chrysler
- Truck Driver
- (uncredited)
Davison Clark
- Police Sergeant
- (uncredited)
Claudia Coleman
- Mother
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMGM originally announced Clark Gable for the lead and Mae Clarke for the role of "Shirley", but neither was in the movie. A contemporary news item also listed Christian Rub and Henry Wadsworth as cast members, but these actors were also not in the movie.
- GoofsThe policeman says that killing someone in a fight, unless the killer can prove self-defense, is murder. This is wrong. Murder requires malice aforethought. The killer in this instance would be guilty of manslaughter.
- ConnectionsVersion of Four Walls (1928)
- SoundtracksA Hundred Years from Today
(1933) (uncredited)
Music by Victor Young
Lyrics by Joe Young and Ned Washington
Played on a radio and sung by an unidentified man
Played also on a record and often as background music
Featured review
By-the-Numbers MGM Crime Picture
Straight is the Way (1934)
** (out of 4)
MGM melodrama has Franchot Tone playing Benny Horowitz, a man recently released from prison who returns home to his mother (May Robson) who prays that he goes straight. He has a good woman (Karen Morley) who loves him but Benny gets involved with a former flame (Gladys George) who certainly doesn't have good intentions with him. This is a remake of a 1928 film but it has a lot more in common with the countless crime pictures that Warner and MGM were releasing through this early part of the decade. While watching the picture and Tone I couldn't help but think that in a couple years Humphrey Bogart would be making "B" pictures like this one at Warner. Tone, while at MGM, got to star in some bigger budgeted pictures but there were a lot of "B" movies like this one where the bigger stars at the studio got the great roles and he had to appear in stuff that, like Bogart, was below his talent. This film here is just so corny that you can't help but laugh at it at times and especially the first twenty-minutes. Tone returns home and we get countless preachy scenes where the mother just stops everything to pray and the "good-faithed" woman is constantly talking about the good in the world. This stuff comes off so forced that the well-intentions just come off laughable. Even sillier is when we're told about her heart condition and we even have a wacky subplot dealing with the old flame who just happens to want to fix Tone for not being "into" her. The entire film lasts just 59-minutes so there's not too much plot but what's here just doesn't work as it comes off rather tame as we've seen this type of thing countless times before and in much better quality. The cast is good for the most part with Tone, Morley, Robson and George fitting their roles just fine. Nat Pendleton is on hand and offers up good support.
** (out of 4)
MGM melodrama has Franchot Tone playing Benny Horowitz, a man recently released from prison who returns home to his mother (May Robson) who prays that he goes straight. He has a good woman (Karen Morley) who loves him but Benny gets involved with a former flame (Gladys George) who certainly doesn't have good intentions with him. This is a remake of a 1928 film but it has a lot more in common with the countless crime pictures that Warner and MGM were releasing through this early part of the decade. While watching the picture and Tone I couldn't help but think that in a couple years Humphrey Bogart would be making "B" pictures like this one at Warner. Tone, while at MGM, got to star in some bigger budgeted pictures but there were a lot of "B" movies like this one where the bigger stars at the studio got the great roles and he had to appear in stuff that, like Bogart, was below his talent. This film here is just so corny that you can't help but laugh at it at times and especially the first twenty-minutes. Tone returns home and we get countless preachy scenes where the mother just stops everything to pray and the "good-faithed" woman is constantly talking about the good in the world. This stuff comes off so forced that the well-intentions just come off laughable. Even sillier is when we're told about her heart condition and we even have a wacky subplot dealing with the old flame who just happens to want to fix Tone for not being "into" her. The entire film lasts just 59-minutes so there's not too much plot but what's here just doesn't work as it comes off rather tame as we've seen this type of thing countless times before and in much better quality. The cast is good for the most part with Tone, Morley, Robson and George fitting their roles just fine. Nat Pendleton is on hand and offers up good support.
helpful•68
- Michael_Elliott
- Jul 20, 2011
Details
- Runtime59 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content