Man of Courage (1943)

You won't be disappointed!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Veteran screen heavy Barton MacLane took a hand in writing a screenplay and he had the germ of a good idea. Unfortunately the only studio he could interest in Man Of Courage was sub poverty row PRC and he got a very typical PRC film with it.MacLane is on the side of the law in this one, he's a crusading, incorruptible, but most ambitious District Attorney who might just make it to the governorship of his state. In real life the year before Man Of Courage came out Thomas E. Dewey and Earl Warren got to be Governors of their respective states so this was not a farfetched notion. One guy he wants to nail is racketeer Lyle Talbot, but he's proving illusive.In fact Talbot on the advice of counsel decides to take a powder for a while with mistress nightclub singer Charlotte Wynters. But a derelict is found with some ID of Talbot's and everybody thinks it's him. MacLane decides to try the wife Dorothy Burgess for the murder.For myself I think this was a pretty good plot premise. But it goes all wrong in the execution. The production values are typical cheap PRC, the direction is non-existent, some of the character's actions make no sense at all, especially Talbot's.And MacLane whose beefy frame and raspy voice fit gangster films so well doesn't look comfortable at all as a good guy. This in a film he wrote.

MAN OF COURAGE is an attempted addition to the gangster sub-genre of film-making and it's a completely dull film, perhaps one of the worst I've seen from this era lately. The script is lifeless and the film misadvertised as a thriller when in fact it's a stodgy, character-based drama with no real characterisation and a heck of a lot of sitting around. The pacing is non-existent and the characters feel dead, giving the whole movie a pointlessness that it never recovers from.The main character is a dullard played by Barton MacLane who works as a district attorney. His number one target is a mob boss played by genre mainstay Lyle Talbot, but his investigation becomes complex when Talbot is apparently murdered. Courtoom antics ensue, but there's no action here, no life or suspense, just stock tedium and an endless treading of water until the film thankfully ends.

Power corrupts, even the honest, and veteran movie hard head Barton MacLane betrays his own integrity so he can move on from the prosecutor's office to the governor's mansion. He has smashed the life of crime for many a mobster, and when murder allegedly takes the life of big shot Lyle Talbot, MacLane puts his wife, Dorothy Burgess, on trial. In the meantime, Talbot sits in hiding with his mistress Charlotte Wynters, contemplating the whereabouts of his insurance policy as wifey stews in prison and MacLane takes the governor's oath of office.An outlandish plot but fine performances rises this above normal B crap, although Peggy Nash is extremely cloying as the moppet like toddler who didn't stick around to watch the mysterious stranger fall several thousand yards to his obvious death. The scream this minor character gets one of the most horrifying deaths in movie history, giving me shudders as I listened to his final sounds. A cameo by Erskine Johnson as himself adds journalistic credibility. This tries to tell a unique story but certain details left me cold. Wynters reminded me if Veda Ann Borg with her dry, caustic delivery, but lacks screen charisma. Talbot's character is sloppily written, leaving this only to MacLane to raise the bar. A twist involving MacLane and Burgess comes out of nowhere and makes absolutely no sense, tossing the plot and motivations out the window and destroying credibility altogether.