Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Absolutely Fantastic

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I enjoyed watching this movie, but there is no use pretending that it has any particular merit. It is interesting to watch early John Wayne movies where he is not playing a cowboy and not fiddling with his revolver. The female lead, Frances Dee, was very interesting to watch, lively and attractive. She reminds me of Geena Davis when young as in EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY (1988, see my review). She stopped acting in 1954, aged 55, and had made 56 films by then. The story of this film is so unconvincing and implausible that it is not even worthwhile attempting to describe it. It is nonsense from beginning to end. The Hungarian émigré director John H. Auer directed the film. It is both easy to watch and easy to forget.

. . . that A MAN BETRAYED actually refers to Marion Mitchell Morrison's Dear Old Dad, cruelly dumped by Ma Morrison as he lay dying in an age when the Scandal of a "Broken Home" usually marked a boy for Life. The future "John Wayne" was so traumatized that he insisted that his former school chums begin calling him "Duke," after the mutt of a family he no longer wished to call his own. When he was old enough, Fido embarked on a film career in roles consistently unmasking the mercenary Black Hearts of the Greedheads, such as those whom did in his Pa. Then, at the apex of his career as the Socialist Robin Hood investigative cowboy Stony Brooke (eight wonderful flicks), Dogman fell into the Evil Clutches of American Fascist Propagandist Director John Ford. With A MAN BETRAYED, filmed after a few months under Ford's Bad Influence, Rex flip-flops his screen personae 180 degrees, marrying into the Fat Cat Family that has just slaughtered his Best Friend Johnny (as Rin Tin Tin himself sold out to the Rich People Dark Side that had swallowed "Oh, My Papa" whole in Real Life not so long before).

Small town attorney John Wayne arrives in a very corrupt big city to find out the truth about the alleged suicide of a local college basketball hero. The dead kid, shot through the lungs right before being struck by lightening, apparently was going to blow the ruthless gambling house "The Inferno" ("Beware all who enter here!" a sign warns) and tie in a local political bigwig up with the mob. This Capra-esque drama with a ton of comic overtones is pretty impressive "A" stuff for Republic, and pairs Wayne with the lovely Frances Dee who gets an entrance usually saved for big MGM stars like Hepburn and Garbo.The Inferno set is like something out of a carnival fun-house and features most of their staff dressed as the devil, including the chorus girls. An election day fight turns comical with Wayne trying to tame the feisty Dee but suddenly turns tragic. It is pretty obvious from the get- go who the bad guys are, but Edward Ellis, as the political boss (and Dee's father) is given many dimensions, making him much like Claude Rains' senator in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". To give one of the "heavies" a name like "T. Amato" indicates the mood of the script which never gets its bearings to really make you take the film seriously. One of Wayne's first non-action/westerns (and set in the present day), this shows him in the same light as James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Gary Cooper and yes, even Ronald Reagen as the simpleton fighting for truth, justice and the American way. The film both benefits and suffers from its comic elements, a plus for the prissy butler Barnett Parker, a definite minus for the brute who lusts for Dee in a seemingly light-hearted manner which turns treacherous, and stunned silence for the slapstick manner of the fight.

Lynn Hollister, a small-town lawyer, travels to the nearby big city on business connected with the death of his friend Johnny. (Yes, Lynn is a man despite the feminine-sounding Christian name. Were the scriptwriters trying to make a snide reference to the fact that John Wayne's birth name was "Marion"?) Hollister at first believes Johnny's death to have been an accident, but soon realises that Johnny was murdered. Further investigations reveal a web of corruption, criminality and election rigging connected to Boss Cameron, the leading light in city 's political machine.That sounds like the plot of a gritty crime thriller, possibly made in the film noir style which was starting to become popular in 1941. It isn't. "A Man Betrayed", despite its theme, is more like a light romantic comedy than a crime drama. Hollister falls in love with Cameron's attractive daughter Sabra, and the film then concentrates as much on their resulting romance as on the suspense elements.This film might just have worked if it had been made as a straightforward serious drama. One reviewer states that John Wayne is not at all believable as a lawyer, but he couldn't play a cowboy in every movie, and a tough crusading lawyer taking on the forces of organised crime would probably have been well within his compass. Where I do agree with that reviewer is when he says that Wayne was no Cary Grant impersonator. Romantic comedy just wasn't up his street. One of the weaknesses of the studio system is that actors could be required to play any part their bosses demanded of them, regardless of whether it was up their street or not, and as Wayne was one of the few major stars working for Republic Pictures they doubtless wanted to get as much mileage out of him as they could.That said, not even Cary Grant himself could have made "A Man Betrayed" work as a comedy. That's not a reflection on his comic talents; it's a reflection on the total lack of amusing material in this film. I doubt if anyone, no matter how well developed their sense of humour might be, could find anything to laugh at in it. The film's light-hearted tone doesn't make it a successful comedy; it just prevents it from being taken seriously as anything else. This is one of those films that are neither fish nor flesh nor fowl nor good red herring. 3/10