User reviews

Brutishly interrogated by seven bullying detectives, beautiful Evelyn Brent (as Rose Manning) claims she knows nothing about a recent cop killing. Informed her racketeering father was also shot to death during the incident, Ms. Brent vows revenge against police inspector William Holden (as "Butch" McArthur) and the other "coppers" responsible. Five years later, Brent runs a nightclub casino popular with underworld types. Brent attracts many men, ranging from manicured bootlegger Ralf Harolde (as Chuck Gaines) to innocent youngish Regis Toomey (as Jimmy). The latter man has a secret which tests Brent's resolve...

This run-of-the-mill melodrama is enjoyably for the dramatics and great beauty provided by Brent. She proved to be as good in "all-talking" pictures as she was in "silent" movies, but the parts she received were getting worse. Her "Framed" role calls for obvious melodramatics, but Brent manages to get in some subtle moments. William Holden is not the 1950s super-star. Having a lot of fun with their characters are villainous Mr. Harolde and henchman Maurice Black (as "Bing" Murdock). The former keeps his fingernails clean; the latter helps Brent and director George Archainbaud make the apartment confrontation a highlight.

***** Framed (3/16/30) George Archainbaud ~ Evelyn Brent, Regis Toomey, Ralf Harolde, William Holden

This is a solid gangster film. It's interesting as it is precode and it's very sinister on multiple levels.

The plot does take twists and turns and it keeps you interested. The performances are solid, sufficient, believable, but seeing once is enough....

Creaky, but Sometimes Clever, this Early Talkie was Headlined by Evelyn Brent, Hardly a Household Name. But Her Acting Ability, Especially Making the Transition from the Silents, is Obvious and She Shines in this Male Oriented Gangster Film.

Regis Toomey, in an Early Role, is Underused and Bland, but as Brent Carries the Film it Plods Along with the Expected Datedness that Plagued the Era from 1927-to about 1933. Hollywood's Transition from Silents to Talkies was, Like All Births, Painful at Times.

This One Fares Pretty Good, but Cannot Escapes the Confines of its Playdate. Worth a Watch to See the Unknown Brent and as a Bridge Roughly Traveled as Filmdom was Finding its Feet with New Technology. The Opening and Closing are Stylistic and Connected, the Middle Meanders a bit, but Manages to be Entertaining Enough to Recommend.

Note...There is very little Pre-Code Inclusions worth noting and the Film would have passed the Censors with no problem.

Police Inspector William Holden tells Evelyn Brent that his men have killed her father during an arrest. She decides she will have her vengeance. It takes five years before it becomes a possibility, when she's singing at her lover's night club. Ralf Harolde is a gangster himself, but neither he nor Miss Brent know that Regis Toomey is Holden's son until he tells her, and she sees his love for her a path to revenge.

There's a lovely ur-noir sequence that opens the movie with Miss Brent being interrogated by the police, and the darkness in the cinematic world persists for the first ten or fifteen minutes, until the somewhat soap-opera-like plot takes over, with Toomey improbably naive.

That's not the William Holden who was a major star from about 1940 through his death in the early 1980s. This was an earlier fellow with the same name; he died in 1932 at the age of 69 after a long career on stage and in film.

Rose Manning (Evelyn Brent) loses her criminal father in a police shootout. She is interrogated by police inspector Butch McArthur and she vows revenge. Five years later, she is the hostess in a casino owned by bootlegger Chuck Gaines (Ralf Harolde) who has his eyes on her. She falls for Jimmy McArthur (Regis Toomey) before knowing that his father is the man she hates.

This is a pre-Code crime drama. I really like the premise and Evelyn Brent has ballsy energy. The longtime actress was able to make the transition from silent to talkie. I'm not completely in love with this relationship. It's a bit bland. Mostly, he's a bit bland. I wouldn't mind a few more scenes with Chuck doing violent crimes. That would elevate the tension. All in all, this is good enough.

This very effectively captures the feel of society's seedier side in 1930; that however is the only interesting thing about this film. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the production, the photography and even the acting, these are all fine but there's nothing distinctive about it.

I doubt that anyone ran excitedly into RKO's commissioning office one early morning shouting that they had a brilliant, fantastic idea for a movie they wanted to make called FRAMED. A more likely scenario is that the board thought something like this was might fill the cinemas and make them money.

With a few very notable exceptions, films from 1929/1930 are probably not going to be as good as those which came afterwards but even for 1930, this is very disappointing. The Depression hadn't kicked in yet and this made by RKO which at the time was a big and prestigeous studio.

The fault I think lies in the script. The writer had probably been reading GREAT EXPECTATIONS the night before he wrote this. The Miss Havisham 'revenge by breaking someone's heart' motif is used here as the plot. Whereas however GREAT EXPECTATIONS has that one story as one of dozens of intertwined themes running through it, this has just this one. You can't expect every writer to be a Dickens but you should expect better writing than this. There's often a purity and a focus in early thirties pictures which can mean that there's little background, or sub-plots to interfere with the main story. That approach however only works when the story itself is strong enough to hold your attention. How a film usually does that is by making its characters relatable and engaging so that when you're watching, you don't just believe that they are real but you care about them. This has a rather dull, predictable and humourless story with unpleasant characters you couldn't care less about.

As a romance, which is what this tries to be, it's very flat. For something like this to work, the characters have got to be likeable, you need to want to know more about them. Some actors and actresses you just warm to straight away but unfortunately, though no fault of her own, Evelyn Brent isn't one of those. You might wonder why at one point she wears the most ridiculous comedy dress of the 1930 but apart from that you'll not give a hoot about what happens to her. She's actually a reasonable actress and carries off this role quite well but the role she's playing is not someone you'd ever want to know and she herself doesn't have that certain X factor which makes you want to watch her.

As for the men, Regis Toomey plays the part of the boyfriend with equal and contrasting measures of utter, utter blandness and annoying stupidity. After five minutes of him being on your screen you will hoping that someone shoots the poor sap and puts us out of our misery. Ralf Harolde plays the dullest gangster ever but you need to appreciate that this was written at the time and people like this obviously existed. Not all crime bosses in 1930 were interesting, they can't possibly all have been dynamic, loveable rogues or terrifying psychopaths, a lot of them were boring and bland like the role Ralf Harold's plays. The question is: why bothering making a film about uninteresting people? Authenticity does not always equal entertainment.

Evelyn Brent (Rose) is on the side of the baddies, in particular the slimy, shady Ralf Harolde (Chuck). She is questioned over the shooting of a policeman but gives nothing away. She is then told that her dad has been killed in the shootout and she holds a grudge against Inspector William Holden (Butch) whom she blames. Fast forward a few years and Brent is a nightclub hostess working for the same gang but falling in love with Regis Toomey (Jimmy) who is a client at the nightclub. Wait a minute..........Toomey is the son of Holden....could be a tricky relationship..

It shouldn't be a tricky relationship at all. Toomey is so awful that he should completely be used and then killed. Watch and find out. Some of you may be disappointed with how things pan out but don't worry because there is someone else who is also completely awful - Maurice Black (Bing). He plays a killer. Great miscasting. Anyway, maybe he'll be killed. Watch and find out.

In summary, not everything that you wish to happen actually does happen. The film is saved by the end sequences but a lot of this cast are just plain crap.

The cop's son, as correctly identified in the cast list, is played by Regis Toomey, not by "a very young William Holden" as stated by another viewer.

William Holden (I) (1918-1981) did not enter films until 1938.

The William Holden (II) in this film (1862-1932) is a much older character actor, who plays Inspector McArthur, and who is no relation to his better known latter day namesake.

Considering the six year gap between their two careers, there is really no reason to confuse the two actors.

For further information on Regis Toomey, consult his webpage.

I am really shocked that "Framed" is not a more famous film. I am also surprised that it's somehow lapsed into the public domain--an inglorious ending to a terrific gangster film.

Evelyn Brent plays Rose Manning--one of the hardest dames you could ever see in Pre-Code gangster films. Shortly after the film begins, Rose learns that the one person in life she cared about, her father, has been killed in a shootout with the cops. She blames Inspector McArthur (William Holden--NOT the one you're thinking about, but an older actor of the same name) and wants her revenge. However, she's a smart cookie and her revenge will be slow in coming. In the meantime, she becomes pals with a hood named Bing (the aptly named Maurice Black) and they open a classy gambling hall named after her.

Time passes and finally you learn of Rose's plan. She has seduced Inspector McArthur's very naive son, Jimmy (Regis Toomey) and she knows this will drive the Inspector nuts! How did she do it? She convinced the young dummy that she is an innocent lady who truly loves him! Not surprisingly, when Jimmy tells his father, there is a HUGE blowup between them and Jimmy won't believe that his fiancée is a criminal. However, Bing is NOT a subtle sort of guy. Despite Rose's plan, he decides the best thing to do is just kill Jimmy. But when Rose learns of this, you see that this hard-hearted dame MIGHT just have fallen for the squirt. What's next? See this film.

This film has so much going for it. Most importantly, at the time this film was made, Radio Pictures was doing a great job with sound pictures. I have seen several of their films from 1929-1930 and the sound is VERY clear and the actors don't tend to stand around hidden microphones--a serious problem with many of the early talkies. Additionally, the film, while a tad sentimental at the end, is great because the bad people really are awful and the film avoids pulling its punches. I'd stack this crime film up along side the best of the genre of the day ("Little Caesar", "Scarface" and "The Public Enemy")--due to wonderful writing, acting and a professional production all around. Well worth seeing--and available for free download at archive.org.

... with some Hitchcockian irony thrown in. This was certainly a good vehicle for Evelyn Brent who plays Rose Manning. The first scene is her surrounded by cops acting like a football team. Maybe if they confuse her with enough questions she'll confess? In this case they are looking for the killer of her father. Two of his associates are shown to her in a lineup and she says she does not know them.

Meanwhile she is sure that Police Inspector "Butch" McArthur (William Holden...no not THAT William Holden) is responsible for her beloved dad's murder, and years later she still wants revenge.. She goes to work for gangster Chuck Gaines (Raf Harolde) as a hostess at his nightclub. At least I THINK that's her job. She doesn't sing or dance, just goes from table to table. The front story to keep the customers off of her is that she is Gaines' girl. Problem is, the story is apparently so convincing even Gaines believes it. A young guy is at the club night after night (Regis Toomey as Jimmy) who is head over heels for Rose and wants to marry her, taking up all of Rose's time. She thinks he is just a sweet kid until she finds out Jimmy is actually the inspector's son, the son of the man she think killed her dad. What worse revenge could she send upon him than to have a gun moll as his daughter in law? Meanwhile Chuck Gaines is a dumb gangster or the police are even more dumb. First off, Raf Harolde portrays his gangster more as cowardly weasel than brains of a syndicate. Jimmy Cagney he is not. But then WB in its prime RKO is not either, so what can I say? Gaines never does the killing himself, he always sends his doorman out to do the job, dressed up in a costume as obvious as an organ grinder, and uses the same corner drugstore and the same time (midnight) for all of his hits. The owner of the all night drugstore, the police, and the fact that it is all of Gaines' old friends that are being bumped off should make somebody wise to this guy's ways.

How does this all work out? Very ironically in a way you'd never guess. Yes some of the scenes are laughable, but overall it is one of the better early talkie films I've seen from that year.

The career of Evelyn Brent probably peaked in the end of the silent era. She made three pics with von Sternberg (Underworld; Last Command; and The Dragnet) and a solid effort with William Wellman (Woman Trap) and did make the jump to talkies, but none of HER pics were successful. This one is mostly straight revenge, taking out her emotions through the cop's son, played by a very young William Holden. Brent has an undisputable presence, and an intriguing nose, and her gowns and dresses are frequently revealing...one or two are cut so low in the back that they would be fashionable and mildly daring today. Fans of early talkies will love this!

I really enjoyed this early talkie better than I expected. Evelyn Brent was terrific as a gal gone the wrong way - and she should have been a star or at least a major player. But that's always a roll of dice in Hollywood.

Any resemblance to a B-picture are wholly unfair. The plot was interesting - all the actors' performances were fine - all right, not stellar but - earnestly played except for the downplayed hoodlum played by Ralf Harolde. It does not bother that some have called it stagey. I expect this from the early talkies and I compensate for it and so should you.

The ending was whimsical and perhaps some of you may not expect it but I found it pleasing.