This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

... with some Hitchcockian irony thrown in. This was certainly a good vehicle for Evelyn Brent who plays Rose Manning. The first scene is her surrounded by cops acting like a football team. Maybe if they confuse her with enough questions she'll confess? In this case they are looking for the killer of her father. Two of his associates are shown to her in a lineup and she says she does not know them.Meanwhile she is sure that Police Inspector "Butch" McArthur (William Holden...no not THAT William Holden) is responsible for her beloved dad's murder, and years later she still wants revenge.. She goes to work for gangster Chuck Gaines (Raf Harolde) as a hostess at his nightclub. At least I THINK that's her job. She doesn't sing or dance, just goes from table to table. The front story to keep the customers off of her is that she is Gaines' girl. Problem is, the story is apparently so convincing even Gaines believes it. A young guy is at the club night after night (Regis Toomey as Jimmy) who is head over heels for Rose and wants to marry her, taking up all of Rose's time. She thinks he is just a sweet kid until she finds out Jimmy is actually the inspector's son, the son of the man she think killed her dad. What worse revenge could she send upon him than to have a gun moll as his daughter in law? Meanwhile Chuck Gaines is a dumb gangster or the police are even more dumb. First off, Raf Harolde portrays his gangster more as cowardly weasel than brains of a syndicate. Jimmy Cagney he is not. But then WB in its prime RKO is not either, so what can I say? Gaines never does the killing himself, he always sends his doorman out to do the job, dressed up in a costume as obvious as an organ grinder, and uses the same corner drugstore and the same time (midnight) for all of his hits. The owner of the all night drugstore, the police, and the fact that it is all of Gaines' old friends that are being bumped off should make somebody wise to this guy's ways.How does this all work out? Very ironically in a way you'd never guess. Yes some of the scenes are laughable, but overall it is one of the better early talkie films I've seen from that year.

Creaky, but Sometimes Clever, this Early Talkie was Headlined by Evelyn Brent, Hardly a Household Name. But Her Acting Ability, Especially Making the Transition from the Silents, is Obvious and She Shines in this Male Oriented Gangster Film.Regis Toomey, in an Early Role, is Underused and Bland, but as Brent Carries the Film it Plods Along with the Expected Datedness that Plagued the Era from 1927-to about 1933. Hollywood's Transition from Silents to Talkies was, Like All Births, Painful at Times.This One Fares Pretty Good, but Cannot Escapes the Confines of its Playdate. Worth a Watch to See the Unknown Brent and as a Bridge Roughly Traveled as Filmdom was Finding its Feet with New Technology. The Opening and Closing are Stylistic and Connected, the Middle Meanders a bit, but Manages to be Entertaining Enough to Recommend.Note...There is very little Pre-Code Inclusions worth noting and the Film would have passed the Censors with no problem.

I am really shocked that "Framed" is not a more famous film. I am also surprised that it's somehow lapsed into the public domain--an inglorious ending to a terrific gangster film.Evelyn Brent plays Rose Manning--one of the hardest dames you could ever see in Pre-Code gangster films. Shortly after the film begins, Rose learns that the one person in life she cared about, her father, has been killed in a shootout with the cops. She blames Inspector McArthur (William Holden--NOT the one you're thinking about, but an older actor of the same name) and wants her revenge. However, she's a smart cookie and her revenge will be slow in coming. In the meantime, she becomes pals with a hood named Bing (the aptly named Maurice Black) and they open a classy gambling hall named after her.Time passes and finally you learn of Rose's plan. She has seduced Inspector McArthur's very naive son, Jimmy (Regis Toomey) and she knows this will drive the Inspector nuts! How did she do it? She convinced the young dummy that she is an innocent lady who truly loves him! Not surprisingly, when Jimmy tells his father, there is a HUGE blowup between them and Jimmy won't believe that his fiancée is a criminal. However, Bing is NOT a subtle sort of guy. Despite Rose's plan, he decides the best thing to do is just kill Jimmy. But when Rose learns of this, you see that this hard-hearted dame MIGHT just have fallen for the squirt. What's next? See this film.This film has so much going for it. Most importantly, at the time this film was made, Radio Pictures was doing a great job with sound pictures. I have seen several of their films from 1929-1930 and the sound is VERY clear and the actors don't tend to stand around hidden microphones--a serious problem with many of the early talkies. Additionally, the film, while a tad sentimental at the end, is great because the bad people really are awful and the film avoids pulling its punches. I'd stack this crime film up along side the best of the genre of the day ("Little Caesar", "Scarface" and "The Public Enemy")--due to wonderful writing, acting and a professional production all around. Well worth seeing--and available for free download at archive.org.

No one did sulky/sultry quite like Evelyn Brent. She really hit her stride in the late 1920s with parts in a couple of Josef von Sternberg ground breaking films. When talkies came along she was thought enough of by Paramount to be cast in their first all talkie production, "Interference", and no one in the cast (not even William Powell) seemed more natural or at ease in front of a mike than Evelyn. Even though Paramount had her pegged for stardom she was mysteriously let go amid rumours of temperament but Brent claimed that as an independent woman she was just speaking her mind. Fortunately for film fans her brand of "bad girl" continued to be in demand and in "Framed" she gives a blistering performance which makes you wonder why she didn't find stardom - especially when Ralf Harolde, who plays "Chuck" gives a very mannered, stagy performance, obviously still finding his "talkie" feet!!Film opens (and closes) with an innovatively filmed interrogation scene in which Rose Manning is grilled by the police and realises that they may have killed her father. Five years later a vengeful Rose is now a nightclub hostess but still planning the demise of police chief "Butch" McArthur (William Holden) - through his son, persistent nightclub patron Jimmie (Regis Toomey - did he ever play a tough guy - I doubt it!!) There is more than enough evidence to suggest with Harolde's "madly mugging" performance that he was the real killer of Rose's dad. The result is an okay crime meller (to give audiences of the day their gangster fix) with some interesting camera angles that only the smaller studios seemed game enough to try.Tough talking Brent keeps the action flowing and is the main reason to watch. Her costumes are gorgeous and must have blown Radio's yearly budget - there is a silver geometric evening dress and one with feathers - how could any man resist her?