The Mad Game *** (1933, Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor, Ralph Morgan, J Carrol Naish, John Miljan, Howard Lally, Matt McHugh, Kathleen Burke) – Classic Movie Review 12,779

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967).

Spencer Tracy is excellent as a bootlegging gangster, in the busy 1933 mob movie The Mad Game.

Director Irving Cummings’s 1933 American Pre-Code crime drama film The Mad Game stars Spencer Tracy and Claire Trevor, along with Ralph Morgan, J Carrol Naish, John Miljan, Howard Lally, Matt McHugh, and Kathleen Burke.

Spencer Tracy is excellent as Edward Carson, a bootlegging gangster, in a busy mob movie, in which the cast is the main recommendation.

When Tracy is banged up in jail, his kidnap for ransom gang abduct the family of his trial judge (Ralph Morgan) – his son Thomas Penfield (Howard Lally) and daughter-in-law Lila Penfield (Mary Mason). But Tracy is freed to assist in their release and capture his own gang, going undercover and infiltrating them with the help of plastic surgery.

This simple-minded, highly unlikely tale makes for a commendably short movie at just 73 minutes, but, with its lack of credible incident, it still seems too drawn-out and often hollow. The young Tracy’s intense and energised performance is the main appeal. But Claire Trevor is interestingly alluring as always as Jane Lee, Tracy’s newswoman love interest, J Carrol Naish is a first-rate conniving villain as Tracy’s double-crossing lieutenant Chopper Allen, and Kathleen Burke impresses as Tracy’s disloyal girlfriend.

The cast are Spencer Tracy as Edward Carson, Claire Trevor as Jane Lee, Ralph Morgan as Judge Penfield, Howard Lally as Thomas Penfield, J Carrol Naish as Chopper Allen, John Miljan as William Bennett, Matt McHugh as Butts McGee, Kathleen Burke as Marilyn Kirk, Mary Mason as Lila Penfield, Willard Robertson as Warden, John Davidson as Doctor, Paul Fix as Lou, Jerry Devine as Mike, and Douglas Fowley as Gangster.

The Mad Game is directed by Irving Cummings, runs 73 minutes, is made and released by Fox Film Corporation, is written by William M Conselman and Henry Johnson (screenplay and story), is shot in black and white by Arthur C Miller, is produced by William Fox, and is scored by Samuel Kaylin.

Release date: October 27, 1933 (US).

The Hays office expressed concern over the film’s abduction theme just one year after the Lindbergh baby kidnapping but it was passed on condition that scenes of the actual abduction were removed. So you see a car following the Penfields but you don’t see them kidnapped.

The Mad Game is now restored from a 35mm nitrate print and the 35mm French nitrate dupe negative by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,779

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