Customer Reviews

Invisible Stripes

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

By 1939, when "Invisible Stripes" was released, the gangster cycle at Warner Brothers was coming to an end. The Hays Office had strangled the genre and the War was soon to take over. The film stars George Raft as an ex-con trying to go straight but unable to make headway due to the invisible stripes of being on parole. Raft was a wooden and unimaginative actor whose stardom was as much based on his notoriety as an ex-gangland figure as any magnetism he brought to the screen. He is arguably at his best here but that is not much of a compliment and he is outclassed by Humphrey Bogart in support as another ex-con. Classical British actress Flora Robson is miscast as his mother, a very young William Holden overacts as his young brother but the tender Jane Bryan is superb in a 2 dimensional part which she invests with great feeling. This is a Hal Wallis production so it is more expansive than many of its much more exciting predecessors. There is a sappy score which telegraphs every change of mood and lots of shots from the studio backlots. They really look like sets too - utterly 2 dimensional.

The DVD print is excellent and Warners Night at the Movies is included with cartoon, trailer, newsreel etc. The technicolour shorts are well done. One is in the series of Reader's Digest history lessons which Warners produced regularly. This one tells of the circumstances which resulted in the Monroe Doctrine and some fine actors appear. The other is a musical satire on Hollywood, another in a series starring Fritz Feld in a take off of director Michael Curtiz. The cartoons are good too. One is set around a prison break with a send up of Hugh Herbert as the warden. The other is a predecessor of Bugs Bunny who is more like Daffy Duck at this stage than the Bugs who evolved. The best feature is the comprehensive and enlightening commentary. Two erudite commentators share the honours. At the same time as placing the film in its place as a prototype Warner Brothers product, they cleverly point out how it signifies a progression from the gangster genre to a precursor of film noir. Also, they explain how the censorship affected the story. Raft's character is devoted to his mother, only returns to crime for the most altruistic of reasons but still gets his just deserts, because, above all, he is a criminal. This is good listening.

The DVD is best value if purchased as part of the Warner's Gangster Collection Volume 4.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents "INVISIBLE STRIPES" (1939) (82 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- Starring George Raft, Jane Bryan, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart, Paul Kelly & Flora Robson

Directed by Lloyd Bacon

Cliff (Raft) and Chuck (Bogart) leave prison together. Cliff tries the straight life but falls back into crime with Chuck and his gang. When he makes enough to enable his brother Tim (Holden) to buy a garage and marry his sweetheart, Cliff quits crime again. But when he tries to help Chuck later on, he's implicated again

George Raft helped Bogey in his career by always turning down good roles, such as "High Sierra", "The Maltese Falcon" and later "Casablanca". Raft and Bogart went on to make one more film together in 1940's "They Drive By Night", where they share equal billing as brothers involved in wildcat trucking, which was another Warner Bros. winner for the two headliners.

Here is a good example of the cast being better than the script--which is a shame. This could have been a better film with a message, but the studio for some unknown reason chose to take another path. For this reason my rating is three stars.

BIOS:
1. Lloyd Bacon [aka: Lloyd Francis Bacon]
Date of Birth: 4 December 1889 - San Jose, California
Date of Death: 15 November 1955 - Burbank, California

2. George Raft (aka: George Ranft)
Date of birth: 26 September 1895 - New York City, New York
Date of death: 24 November 1980 - Los Angeles, California

3. Jane Bryan [aka:Jane O'Brien]
Date of Birth: 11 June 1918 - Los Angeles, California
Date of Death: 8 April 2009 - Pebble Beach, California

4. Humphrey Bogart
Date of Birth: 25 December 1899 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 14 January 1957 - Los Angeles, California

5. William Holden [aka: William Franklin Beedle Jr.]
Date of Birth: 17 April 1918 - O'Fallon, Illinois
Date of Death: 16 November 1981 - Santa Monica, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 3 Stars
Performance: 3 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 2 Stars
Overall: 3 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 82 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (01/25/2005)

This crime classic was ignored on video, so this is indeed a welcomed release. This release is in the 4th DVD collection of "Gangsters" and it's worth your time. It captures the era of the Warner 'mugs' and fans of the genre will recognize old friends like Marc Lawrence, Paul Kelly and Al Hill sprinkled throughout the cast. Leonard Maltin wrote that the "subdued acting is effective" and he's so right. Star George Raft plays a released convict trying to edge his way back into society. At the dawning of his career, William Holden (in a role that John Garfield turned down), registers well as the frustrated younger brother that wants to improve his lot. Bogie was far down on the Warner Bros ladder at this time, but was surely working his way up. Picture and sound quality are first-rate, as well.

INVISIBLE STRIPES is a Warner Bros. "assembly line" picture helmed by contract director Lloyd Bacon. In 1928, Bacon directed Warner's highest grosser of the year, THE SINGING FOOL. He was also in charge on 42ND STREET (1933), FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933) and KNUTE ROCKNE ALL AMERICAN (1940), plus a number of lesser but still well-known films like BROTHER ORCHID (1940), THE OKLAHOMA KID [VHS] (1939) and SAN QUENTIN (1937).

After 1934, constraints of the Hays Office production code had forced Warner and other studios to tone down blatant sexuality and violence in their product. A "crime never pays" trade-off became necessary in gangster films, thus in this one, every "bad" character is dead before the final fade. That includes a crook with good intentions: he broke the law, he croaked. It's a simple and inviolable formula. In itself this payoff isn't disappointing, but mediocre dialogue, plot predictability and merely adequate acting from the leads does prove hampering to "Stripes."

CAST--

Female lead Jane Bryan's career potential was never realized, for she quit movies in 1940 after marrying into the Walgreen/Rexall Drug Co. fortune. Lee Patrick, who here plays a moll with "natural blonde" hair, is best remembered as Sam Spade's Girl Friday in THE MALTESE FALCON (1941).

A typically wooden George Raft defies his leading man status, even as he defied his home studio by turning down juicy roles that a supporting player here would make famous. That actor, Humphrey Bogart, still a 4th banana in '39, fares best in his small but pivotal role. Flora Robson gives a restrained and believable performance as Raft's chronically sad mother. Although a year younger than Raft, skillful make-up and acting have the British-born Robson easily decades older than her "son."

Fresh off a breakthrough starring role in GOLDEN BOY (1939), William Holden's smooth voice is familiar, but he hasn't yet acquired that worldy-wise face we so remember. Dead End Kid Leo Gorcey plays it straight as a department store stockroom supervisor. Soon he would be typecast as the swaggering, malapropistic Muggs Maginess (and other personas) in dozens of faintly derivative Dead End variations. A shame, for Gorcey could've become a fine character actor instead of a cartoony middle-aged street "boy."

Don't blink or you'll miss Raymond Bailey's bookie cameo, also William Hopper's top-hatted gent. Both gained later notoriety on TV, Bailey as Mr. Drysdale on THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES and Hopper as private eye Paul Drake on PERRY MASON.

Good solid movie starring George Raft as an ex-con trying to go straight, and not doing so well. His younger brother also frustrated with it all is considering following the footsteps of his older brother to a life of crime to get ahead. Humphrey Bogart, William Holden are great in this. Humphrey played a gangster ex-con in this as well. Good acting, strong story. I only give it 3 stars since I cant do a 3.5, and on top of that there are better classic gangster movies like Little Caesar, Kid Gallahad , Public Enemy. This does stand out on its own merits and worth checking out with some of you might wanting to own it after renting it. Even if it wasn't part of Warner's Gangster set, Id want to own it anyway because it is that good enough :)

It's high time this movie is released on DVD, it was never available before on VHS. This is one of my favorite Warner Bros. gangster films for it stars both George Raft & Humphrey Bogart, I'm a fan of both actors & the crime film genre. But this is not just a typical "knock 'em down drag 'em out" car chasing gun blazing gangster film. It's also a social commentary on just how tough it really was to live in Depression era 1930's America. In the early 1930's public enemies like Al Capone, John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, 2-Gun Crowley, Bonnie & Clyde & Ma Barker & her boys etc. were celebrated folk hero's & the public had no respect for law & order. Until G-men like Melvin Purviss, Elliot Ness & Thomas Dewey cracked down & stopped all these colorful characters dead in their tracks & only then the tide turned & the people had a new found respect & admiration for law & order.


The movie opens in Sing Sing prison with George Raft & Humphrey Bogart on their way out of prison. Raft wants to go on the straight & narrow path while Bogart does the opposite & takes up where he left off as a criminal.
Both characters have valid reasons to justify their paths. Bogie thinks the odds are just too stacked against them trying to go straight because of the hard economic times & the way the system is set up. A released convict is given so much time to find a job or he will end up back in jail. Raft finds out very quickly just how cold & unfair the outside world is to an ex-con & he is greeted by suspicion, distrust & joblessness. His girlfriend rejects him because he is an ex-con. He finds jobs very hard to get because he's wearing invisible stripes.

He has a kid brother ( William Holden) who is a grease monkey & dreams of having a shop of his own. When the going gets tough for the kid brother, Raft discourages him from following in his convict footsteps & beats some sense into him & decides to join Bogarts gang for a series of bank heists just to get enough jack to buy a garage for him & his kid brother to keep him straight. When Raft quits the gang on a subsequent robbery Bogart uses Rafts brothers shop as a hideout until the heat cools off. Raft gets torn between his loyalty to Bogart & his kid brother Holden. But he will not allow his kid brother to take the rap for Chuck & his gang & convinces Holden to rat on Bogie & his gang at the police station by identifying the gangsters. Bogie decides to help Raft against the rest of the gang who are out to shoot Raft for betraying them & Bogie even takes a bullet for Raft. Both are shot & killed. Bogart plays a likable bad guy in this movie & of course we all sympathise with Raft's character because of the injustice & humiliation of what he endures in the outside world because he was behind bars.

Bogart's bad guy role as Chuck Martin was also sympathetic in a way because of the bond & close friendship that grew between the 2 men in prison. I was saddened to see both actors getting killed at the end of the movie. If you're a fan of both actors & the gangster genre this is a good watch. Recommended !

This 1939 "Gangster/crime movie was the typical run of the mill stories they were put out during the 1930s, but is very enjoyable especially with seeing Bogie in one of his early roles as a thug, but with a good heart.
Raft is as wooden as ever and a young William Holden over acts every time he loses his temper. The story line is typical of bad guy trying to go good, but society prevents his reform !
It is amazing that in a short 10 years that Bogart would be a Mega Superstar, Holden would be a superstar and Raft would be...well...he would have an "Invisible Career" !!