El antro del mal

Watched this because of the brilliant stories and scripts Hecht and MacArthur had written. Oh dear - had I watched this first, I doubt I'd have held them is such high esteem before. Then again, they didn't actually write this!

Apparently this was made in a rush. Warner Brothers could write, film and edit a classic virtually in a couple of hours. That wasn't the way Goldwyn was used to and it really shows. The story (which Hecht and MacArthur abandoned to go and write SCARFACE instead) doesn't seem thought out, the characters aren't fleshed out at all, they're just shallow bland stereotypes and to make it worse, it's got Fay Wray in it. Of all the stars of the early thirties, how she remained so popular for so long makes no sense to me. In this she reads her lines competently.

Nobody involved in the making of this was happy with it. Nobody seems particularly bothered so if they don't believe in what they're doing, you the viewer can't engage either. This is a real wasted opportunity. The idea of a bunch of lawless reprobates isolated in a remote hotel sounds like it could have been fun had it had been made properly so how this ended up so dull is a staggering disappointment. A similar idea was used in William Wellman's SAFE IN HELL which is one of my least favourite Wellman pictures but at least that had believable characters.

I'd agree with the cast and crew - best to forget about this one.