Customer Reviews

Hell House [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Part reform movie and part "B" picture melodrama, Junior Durkin plays a kid who idolizes bootlegger Pat O'Brien; when O'Brien hires him as a go-fer, Durkin is in his glory. Little does he realize that O'Brien has eyes for his girlfriend, Bette Davis. When the bootlegger's joint gets raided and Durkin is arrested, he refuses to rat out O'Brien and the kid is sent to reform school for three years. Here the boy is cruelly mistreated; when another boy at the school dies, a newspaper threatens to expose what's going on (that's the reform angle). When Durkin finds out from his mother that O'Brien and Davis are a number, he escapes and pays a visit to Davis. She feeds him the line that she was only doing it to get O'Brien to spring him. Then when the cops show up on Durkin's tail, O'Brien confesses. It's a pretty unbelievable ending, and the picture is not very memorable. It's interesting to see Davis this early in her career, though, and some of her scenes with O'Brien are decent, if not great.

Undistinguished, yet a perfectly watchable depression/prohibition-era melodrama set mostly in a workhouse for delinquent kids. For those Bette Davis fans out there, yes, Bette Davis is in this movie, but it by no means a "Bette Davis movie". Ms. Davis plays the girlfriend of a bootlegger, but doesn't get to do much besides show that she has the conscience her boyfriend lacks (until the unlikely conclusion where the bootlegger all of a sudden feels guilt for those he ground under his boots on the way up). She's also not onscreen much, with most of the running time being devoted to a misguided kid trying to make his way in the workhouse after he refuses to dime out his bottlegger boss.

All in all, this churned-out, second-tier melodrama is a fairly painless stopover for Bette Davis completists. The movie is only 72 minutes long, the print isn't bad (though it's not sharp and restored, by any means), and there's a nice gallery of other vintage-era DVD offerings to scroll through, which mostly feature original movie poster art on the DVD boxes pictured.

This movie is a great classic that I was happy to add to our collection. Product shipped quickly and arrived in great condition.

This early Bette Davis movie is about graft and corruption in a boys reformatory. This fictional piece probably described many such places of the time and could have been an attempt of passive agressive exposure by the author. Pat O'Brien plays a slick bootlegger with a quirky sense of humor. He also is a master of some very lame magic tricks, is a braggart and name dropper. He does not know any of the people whose names he drops. He is a sharp dresser and afficianado of one liners. When he gets a bit fresh with Bette, he quips, "I just washed my hands and can't do a thing with them!" He suckers a poor recently orphaned 15 year old boy who worships him and needs a job into becoming a part of his bootlegging operation with the promise of big bucks. The catch is that he must not tell anyone of their association or name any names if there is any trouble. The kid, played by Jr. Durkin has no idea he is involved in anything illegal, he is that naive. He is then apprehended and sent to the reformatory, divulging nothing. He had the chance to go free if he would name names and refuses, convinced that the bootlegger will find a way to spring him quickly. Instead, he spends three years in the place in almost unbearable conditions and worse, he witnesses horrible cruelty perpetrated against the friends he has made there. A newspaper man knows of the corruption but can't prove it. He tells the warden to come clean, to save the lives of young men, but he won't. Meanwhile the young man escapes in a food barrel for the sole reason of getting medical help for a dying friend in the reformatory. Ms. Davis has offered her friendship to the boy before so he winds up on her doorstep with his sad tale. She is determined to make things right, so she coerces her bootlegger beau to spill his guts to the newspaper editor. He can't without implicating himself. The editor uses emotional blackmail to get him to finally take the fall and the young boy does not have to return to the reformatory. The editor blows the lid off the reformatory conditions and the ensuing headlines cause investigations. Ms. Davis, very young, very beautiful and kinda blonde has a very minor role, but she steals the show. Her fur- trimmed outfit is to die for. Jr. Durkin is great as is his charming little friend, "Shorty."

I would recomemnd selling this until a beter copy can be made

Story OK. Main complaint is the quality of the print (purchased from Amazon). Casette labeled "Hell House, 1934" which is incorrect: It is "Hell's House" and it was produced in 1932. Print had numerous scratches and the soundtrack was very poor.