Smart Guy (1943)
A gambler is about to stand trial for a crime he actually didn't commit. In order to brush up his "image", he adopts an orphaned newsboy.
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Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Usually a film that's commercially available on DVD will attract lots of reviews, but this Monogram "B" seems to be the exception. That's a shame because Wanda McKay (rhymes with "high") has one of her most charming roles as the feminine lead. Admittedly, she's not billed as such, but her role is larger than that filled (in her usual "tough dame" style) by Veda Ann Borg. The other players are likewise never less than competent. In fact, Rick Vallin makes quite a pleasing hero (who handles the unpleasant situation he finds himself in with commendable fortitude) and even Bobby Larson is quite tolerable as the kid he rescues. However, the movie does come to a most disappointing conclusion when "Good" triumphs and the hero faces a one-to-five prison sentence for a "crime" that never happened. You'd think the scriptwriters could have come up with some sort of last-minute reprieve, however weak. Even a character witness who could destroy the credibility of the victim would be better than nothing. Or is the "message" of the movie really that all lawyers are viciously incompetent and that if you are accused of committing a crime that never occurred, you may as well plead guilty and be done with it. "Smart Guy" is one of only five or six Hollywood movies of the 1940s in which the vicious character wins the day and the hero loses out.