Crwthod
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
ThedevilChoose
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
bkoganbing
Before signing with Warner Brothers and after getting his big break with his screen debut in The Front Page, Pat O'Brien appeared in a variety of films of varying quality for different studios. This one is for poverty row Majestic Pictures and for a poverty row film it boasts an impressive cast. But I can safely say that everyone here has done better work in their career. Mind you this is a cast that includes Evelyn Brent, Mary Brian, Neil Hamilton, Louis Calhern and J. Carrol Naish.District Attorney Wallis Clark who is investigating a crooked stock scheme is set up in a love nest by Evelyn Brent and murdered by trigger man Naish. O'Brien is a crime reporter with all kinds of friends in low places and Hamilton is Clark's upright assistant who succeeds him. But both had a high regard for Clark and both want justice for his daughter Mary Brian and both kind of like her.Turns out some of O'Brien's low place friends are indeed responsible. But they work for some blue chip Wall Street crooks. In 1933 blue chip Wall Street crooks were very popular villains.The World Gone Mad should have been a better film. Except for the end which has a great climax where the blue chip crooks get their's, this is a sluggish film. Again at a major studio this would have been a better film.
kidboots
Only in an obscure poverty rower (Majestic Pictures, who are not above promoting possibly their most famous production with "The Vampire Bat" posters outside a cinema where two of the stars just happen to be talking), could you find a wealth of names to warm the cockles of a pre-code lovers heart. There is beautiful Geneva Mitchell, a Follies beauty who made a career of walk through parts in early talkies, slinky Evelyn Brent (who looks absolutely stunning in this movie), sweet Mary Brian who had been a star but was now falling on leaner times, matinée idol Neil Hamilton who had been a silent star for D.W. Griffith, had co-starred with Norma Shearer and was soon to settle into character parts and cute little Buster Phelps who had played the little boy in "Three on a Match". Even annoying Inez Courtney who seemed to be in every other early talkie musical had an unbilled part as, what else? - an annoying telephonist!!!But wait - there's more!!! Louis Calhern (wrongly spelled in the credits) is the first to appear as Christopher Bruno, President of Continental Importers/Exporters, but really a racketeer who is in the middle of planning the demise of pesky D.A. Henderson, who is on the brink of exposing a giant stock market fraud. Henderson leaves behind a beautiful wife (Mitchell), a cute kid (Phelps) and a crime fighting buddy, Andy (Pat O'Brien), determined to clear Henderson's name. In the great tradition of pre-code political exposes Henderson has been shown as leading a double life but of course it's not true. Another person wanting to clear things up is new D.A. Lionel Houston (Hamilton) but unfortunately his fiancée is Diane Cromwell (Mary Brian looking far more fetching as a brunette than as a blonde) and her father, unknowingly, is in it up to his neck thanks to his greedy partners.With phrases like "the public be damned" this was a film "plucked from the headlines" and the stock market crash of 1929 was still vivid in the memories of the movie going public. This was a movie worthy of the fast paced, topical Warners studios. Meanwhile Andy is looking up assorted cronies including Salvatore (J. Carroll Naish) who was in the apartment where Henderson was killed but claims he wasn't the killer. Andy is then led to Carlotta Lamont (sultry Brent) where he starts to weave his charm (?) even though she is Salvatore's girl, Bruno's girl - actually anybody's girl!!!With all these top stars giving their all, especially Calhern with a very natural performance, this definitely doesn't have the look of a cheap movie. Majestic had a short life, finishing up in 1935 and also being responsible for 1933's ahead of it's time "stream of consciousness movie "The Sin of Norah Moran". Definitely worth a look regardless whether you find it in the "Horror Classics" pack.Highly Recommended.
Coventry
Most of these 30's thrillers/murder mysteries have been forgotten by now because, let's face it, they haven't got much to offer apart from – occasionally – a good story. This little film has a very decent story, fluently written dialogues and some really adequate acting performances, yet it simple can't be called memorable because of the shabbiness of the production. Pat O'Brien ("Hell's House") stars as an obtrusive reporter investigating the vicious assassination of a befriended District Attorney and unravels almost single-handedly an entire network of corruption, blackmail and political scandals. His performance is very good and he gets to say some very slick lines, yet the movie lacks a lot of action and continuity. There's one sequence near the beginning that I found particularly smart, showing how the assignment for murder is passed on to several involved parties and thus creating a complex structure that sadly never gets properly clarified. There are some more ingenious and dared ideas in the plot, but it all looks too poor for you to care. Feel free to avoid this one.
classicsoncall
Just about sixty years before the Enron scandal, "The World Gone Mad" appears to be a strangely prophetic film of personal scandal and corporate greed. When a District Attorney is murdered and discovered in a "love nest", the front page headlines leave all those close to him bewildered and doubtful of the circumstances surrounding his death. In short order, a new D.A. is assigned, and Lionel Houston (Neil Hamilton) is determined to get to the bottom of a tangled financial scheme. Unfortunately, the investigation involves the father of his fiancée, the head of the Cromwell Investment Corporation (John St. Polis). Pat O'Brien heads the bill here, as a less than scrupulous newspaper reporter, who's not above a bit of gambling, drinking and womanizing himself. In a darkened scene meant to be highly suggestive, his character Andy Terrell finds himself in a very compromising position with the mob connected Carlotta Lamont (Evelyn Brent). It's done very much tongue in cheek, but for 1933, let's say it was risqué beyond belief. How about crass commercialism. There's a great scene at a newspaper stand, in the background is a poster for the same year's film, "The Vampire Bat" starring Lionell Atwill and Fay Wray. At a run time of about eighty minutes, there are moments that seem to drag, but overall, the film brings it's victims to justice admirably. It will help to keep a scorecard though, there are a lot of characters introduced in a short time, and it would be easy to lose track of things otherwise. And was it just me, or did the widow of D.A. Henderson (Geneva Mitchell) look the spitting image of Seinfeld gal pal Julia Louis Dreyfus?
