An early film glorifying the role of stuntmen in early Hollywood, characterizing them as brave daredevils who look at the possibility of dying with a smile and great stoicism. There are some scenes here that are indeed quite hazardous, including falls down stairs, swinging over to a burning building, boating down some seriously churning whitewater rapids, and various car crashes. They don't rise to the level of the best stuntwork from the period, but the ones towards the end are at least worth checking out, if you're getting bored during the rather dull middle part of this film.
In 'Stunt: The Story of the Great Movie Stunt Men' (1974), John Baxter lists 55 deaths in California film productions over the years 1925-30, and fans of old films have undoubtedly come across many a scene that looked truly harrowing to make. It's just interesting to me that no one questioned the ethics of filmmakers to put people at such risk, even if the stuntmen involved were willing, and it's certainly not questioned here. Instead, this comes across as a propaganda piece for Hollywood, and annoyingly, it's women who take the blame for accidents involving stuntmen more than once. Relationships should be avoided because they make stuntmen lose their edge, you see, and it's "bad luck" to have one's wife on the set. In one scene, a woman literally distracts her husband while he's trying to perform a dangerous stunt, causing him to fail and another man to die.
The other issue is the flimsy story draped around the stunts. A bottle breaking is an omen for a stuntman dying, and sure enough, it happens. A newcomer is initiated by pouring water through a funnel and down his pants, which humorously enough I had just seen in another film, 'The First Auto' (1927). A woman attempts suicide but after being saved by a couple of guys, is all smiles with them shortly thereafter. A love triangle develops but there are no hard feelings, just smiles. The film wants to make us feel there is danger all around - in the stunts, the pregnant woman not getting proper medical care, and there not being other work because of the Depression - but tonally it needed to be darker to accomplish this. It's worth a look, but guard your expectations.
