THE BIG GAMBLE (1931)

On New Year's Eve, William Boyd (pictured) approaches big-shot gangster Warner Oland. Boyd owes Oland $5,000 and can't pay him, but he has a proposition: if Oland will give Boyd $7,500, the money to buy a life insurance policy worth $100,000, Boyd will make Oland his beneficiary and then commit suicide. Oland agrees, but has some rules of his own. Because of suicide clauses in life insurance policies, Boyd has to wait for a year and a day before he dies. Oland also forces Boyd to marry Dorothy Sebastian, a woman he doesn't already know, making her the beneficiary, so she can turn the money over to Oland. Sebastian agrees to the set-up to save the life of her brother (William Collier Jr.), a minor member of Oland's gang who is marked for punishment for supposedly having betrayed Oland. Boyd agrees, though neither bride nor groom knows each other's motives in this marriage. They are set up in a nice apartment with a friendly maid (Zasu Pitts) and a guard (James Gleason), a member of Oland's gang. As the year goes on, Boyd and Sebastian fall in love, come to realize their situations, and vow to make enough money to pay back Oland his $12,500, But come the next New Year's Eve, Oland says he wants $100,000 or Boyd's life.

Though made too early to be a film noir, this occasionally has the feel of one. In a real noir, Boyd's character would be fleshed out a bit more, and would probably be more ambiguous in his morality—we learn very little about his life before the first New Year's Eve, and he comes off as a nice (if too passive) guy who just needed the love of a good woman to toughen him up. Similarly, Sebastian's character is a zero, pleasant but not interesting. As a crime thriller, it only really thrills in the last ten minutes with a crazy-ass car chase that is quite effective. But there are some acting pleasures to be had. Oland, though seemingly playing an Anglo character, looks and sounds a bit like Charlie Chan, the character that made him famous, and is nicely slimy without going over the top. The presence of Pitts and Gleason for semi-comic relief is welcome, particularly Gleason who despite his sometimes gruff manner, seems to have been incapable of playing an unpleasant person. Slow-paced with somewhat drab leads but watchable. [TCM]