Ten Nights in a Bar-Room

In the 19th and early 20th century, moralistic and sensationalistic tales about the evils of drink were very popular on stage. Not surprisingly, in the early days of film, these sorts of stories were also extremely popular. The stories were generally very, very melodramatic and even a bit silly. They had a good point to make but told the stories in such ridiculous ways that they are laughable by today's standards. "Ten Nights in a Barroom" is clearly inspired by all these previous stories and even features some super- sentimental and old time music and is a bit ridiculous. However, oddly, it also is much more realistic at times--particularly in its portrayal of advanced alcoholism and the DTs. So, we have a definite mixed bag of a film that is super-familiar if you've seen any of these anti-drink silent movies. I've seen quite a few and they are all essentially the same--a decent family man avoids alcohol until one day he is pressed repeatedly by his so-called friends to have 'just one'....and he soon is a raging drunk who is abusive and neglectful of his poor family. If course, being an hour long, it's got more to it as well--including a very odd scene near the end when the drunken guy burns down the bar!! Oddly enjoyable despite its being old fashioned even when it debuted in 1931.