I Promise to Pay (1937)

To me, this movie is perfection.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The film begins with Chester Morris trying to get an advance from his boss. However, the boss tells him that it's against company policy to do this. Instead of waiting a few weeks for his anticipated bonus, Morris borrow the money from a loan shark!! Then, seeing him throwing away this money uselessly tells you he is playing a giant idiot! When this bonus does NOT materialize, he cannot pay back his debt on time--a very bad idea when dealing with this sorts of people. And, to top it off, he continues to make one stupid decision after another! Despite the writer making Morris just a bit too dim, where the film goes next is very exciting, as the gang starts to put the squeeze on Morris...and his family. This makes for a very tense and interesting film--and improves as the film progresses. The writing, action and direction all improve as the film progresses--making it better than the average B-movie. Well worth seeing.

Chester Morris, low paid office guy with a cheap flat in the city, a wife and two kids, wants a vacation to escape the worst heat in years. When he signs on the dotted line with a shady loan outfit, he soon finds that he has said "I PROMISE TO PAY" far more than he can afford. Will Chester and his family escape his debt to Leo Carillo's new-style, can't miss racket? Despite a script that seems downright naive in spots, probably because of our exposure to numerous loan sharks in the movies, this a rather good programmer, that answers the question posed by many a Boston Blackie movie -- Is it possible for Chester Morris to put in a good performance? In this one, Morris' customary cockiness is only an aspect of his character (rather than his raison d'etre), and is mostly subordinated in his depiction of a decent but quietly desperate guy in a dead-end job who just wants to give his wife and kids a week in the country. The depiction of Morris' disintegrating life is contrasted, in best 30s fashion, against the over-the-top vulgarity of Carillo's mob-fueled wealth. Eventually, because movies like this had to have a happy ending in the 30s, the plot spins into a d.a. vs. mobsters vs. witnesses that won't talk that's resolved in favor of law and order. But until that point is reached, this movie is better than most of that era in showing the trials and tribulations of the lower middle class, and how a family copes with slowly creeping financial disaster.Well worth seeing, both as a decent Warner's style crime drama, and a depiction of the 30s socially conscious mindset.

I think I watched this film for Helen Mack. I had just seen her in "Girls of the Road" and her performance stood out in that mediocre attempt. What struck me was the chemistry between her and her co-star, Chester Morris. Their portrayal of a married couple still in love after eight years was so genuine I felt drawn in to their lives, felt their misery and disappointments, and sympathized with the gut wrenching decisions they had to make on a daily basis regarding the basic necessities of life. Yet in spite of their hard lives, or perhaps because of them, they stayed devoted to each other and very much connected. Whenever they were on screen the chemistry between them was unmistakable. They made me believe they really loved each other and that's what I found unusual. The rest of the movie is OK. Leo Carillo is a standout as the loan shark but the plot follows a more or less predictable path to a predictable ending. If it weren't for the scenes with Mack and Morris it would be entirely forgettable.

**SPOILERS** With a major heatwave hitting the city office worker Eddie Lang, Chester Morris, want's to take his wife Mary, Helen Mack, and two young children to the country for the week vacation that's coming him from his employer Rushmore inc.Needing a cash advance Eddie is steered to this loan shark Richard Farra, Leo Corrillo, by one of his friends Al Anslie, John Gallaudet, who secretly works for Farra in getting him new suckers or customers. As things turn out the $50,00 that Farra, through a local candy store owner, loaned Eddie had a 20% interest-or vig-thatched on to it! The 20% vig was not just annually or even monthly but weekly! This means by the end of the year with Eddie paying $10.00 a week in paying off Farra's loan he'll end up paying an astounding $520.00! That amounts to some 1,000% over what Farra loaned him!Realizing he's way over his head in paying his entire weekly saleary,$10.00, to Farra just to keep it above water Eddie tries to pay just $2.00 weekly until the loan is paid off. This leads to Eddie and his family getting threatened with psychical violence by Farra's hoods if he doesn't pay up! Desperate Eddie robs his office to make his weekly loan payment which has him being fired, or laid off, from his job after confessing his crime, and paying back the stolen money, to his very understanding boss B.G Wilson, Willis Clark. Moving to a cheaper apartment and getting a new job at the US Government sponsored W.P.A. Eddie finally thought he was through with Farra and his debt collectors! As things turned out Eddie troubles with the loan shark was just beginning!***SPOILERS*** Shocking expose of the brutal loan shark racket and how it turns decent and law abiding citizens like Eddie Lang into desperate criminals! Eddie finally realizes that the only way to get Farra off his and his family's backs is go to the D.A's office and turn evidence against him. The trouble is that to get Farra Eddie and the D.A. will have to find a link in the Farra crime syndicate that's close enough to both finger and turn states evidence against him! Eddie who doesn't consider himself to be any kind hero becomes one by, with Farra ordering a hit on him, setting himself up as a target for Farra's hoods. Who in the end warn't that loyal to their boss to go to the eclectic chair for a murder he ordered them to commit!