Invisible Stripes *** (1939, George Raft, Jane Bryan, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart) – Classic Movie Review 5077

William Holden stars with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in the Warner Bros gangster flick Invisible Stripes (1939).

In the first of their two films together, George Raft and Humphrey Bogart make a good team as Cliff Taylor and Chuck Martin in director Lloyd Bacon’s interesting if routine 1939 film noir-style crime drama tale of gangster ex-con Cliff’s attempts to beat the odds to go straight after returning home from prison on parole.

A very young-looking William Holden plays Raft’s worried kid brother Tim, with Jane Bryan the female lead Peggy, Tim’s sweetheart, Lee Patrick as Molly, and Britain’s Flora Robson in unexpected casting as Mrs Taylor. Fourth billed Bogart is still struggling to make his way to the top of the Hollywood heap.

Cliff falls back into a life of crime with fellow ex-con Chuck and his gang but goes straight again after he pays for Tim to buy a garage and marry his sweetheart. However, he makes the mistake of helping Chuck again.

Warren Duff’s downbeat screenplay makes for a depressing movie, but the story is efficiently told by director Bacon and the performances are, as usual from a vintage Warner Bros cast, immaculate.

Duff’s screenplay is based on the novel Invisible Stripes by Warden Lewis E Lawes, a crusader for prison reform, as adapted by Jonathan Finn.

Also in the cast are Paul Kelly, Moroni Olsen, Tully Marshall, Henry O’Neill, Frankie Thomas, Margot Stevenson, Marc Lawrence, Joseph Downing, Leo Gorcey, William Haade, Tully Marshall, Chester Clute, Jack Mower, Frank Mayo, John Irwin and G Pat Collins.

Invisible Stripes runs 82 minutes, is shot in black and white by Ernest Haller, is produced by Hal B Wallis and is scored by Heinz Roemheld.

Holden accidentally hit Raft filming a fight scene.

Raft and Bogart followed it together with They Drive by Night (1940).

Bogart and Holden worked together again 15 years later in Sabrina (1954).

William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Stalag 17 (1953).

Bogart won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The African Queen (1951).

Top-billed Raft had just signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. He said he never regarded himself as an actor: ‘I wanted to be me.’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5077

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com