Born Reckless

Edmund Lowe, Lee Tracy and J Farrell MacDonald in the foreground

John Ford's Born Reckless, from 1930, has perhaps the worst reputation of any sound film that Ford directed. Joseph McBride called it "...perhaps the worst film to bear Ford's name." ♈Bill Routt calls it "a dull, bad film." and Tag Gallagher allots it one sentence to it in his 572 page book on Ford. All three of these esteemed scholars are Ford partisans. Ford himself complained "it wasn't a good story." ♉ Scott Eyman and Fernando F. Croce are among the slim number to have a few nice things to say about Born Reckless. William K. Everson calls it "a fast and absorbing picture" and it is with this view that I concur. 

The flick, as it exists, is a brisk, if tumbledown 76 minutes and I feel Everson is correct that it is somewhat above the average Fox release of that period. The film's screenplay, adapted by Dudley Nichols from Donald Henderson Clarke's Louis Beretti, focuses on the life of a New York gangster, Louis (Edmund Lowe) who we meet, in the film's expressionistic prologue, attempting to crack a safe. Eventually, Louis and two of his compatriots are given the choice by J. Farrell MacDonald's DA to either take the fall for the attempted heist or to serve their country by enlisting in the army and be sent to France to fight in World War 1. It is interesting how cynically the film views the men's patriotic sacrifice, a cynicism that never left Ford's work despite his critics accusing of him of wrapping himself in the flag in his later years. We really know we are in a John Ford film when the Doughboy conscripts are presided over by Ward Bond and Jack Pennick playing drill sergeants. The sequences of the war in France are rambunctious fun, featuring some baseball (as in Up the River) , charging horses, and sundry shenanigans.

After this rowdy first third, the rest of the film is beset by its melodramatic contrivances and wooden leads. Edmund Lowe was cast on the strength of his performances in similar he-man roles, particularly two successful films directed by Raoul Walsh, The Cockeyed World and What Price Glory?, the latter of which was weirdly remade by Ford years later. Lowe makes no attempt to display his character's Italian heritage (unlike Marguerite Churchill as his sister) and offers a dull, prosaic, and unmodulated performance. Catherine Dale Owen is much, much worse as his unrequited love. Lee Tracy is perfectly cast and fun as a reporter and offers lots of snappy patter. Randolph Scott appears briefly in the thankless role of Ms. Owen's eventual husband.

Lee Tracy, slouched on the bar. 

As usual in Ford's films, there are numerous entertaining character vignettes by unbilled actors. I especially enjoyed Joe Brown as a bartender and Yola d'Avril as a French gal willing to dispense love pecks for a sack of sugar. I don't know who plays the blonde chippie who ends up working in Louis' club, but I adored her performance and would love to ascertain her identity. Despite its obvious limitations, Ford, at least, responds to the pre-Code friskiness of Born Reckless. The compelling final shoot out of the film, in which Ford mimics the conventions of a Western saloon gunfight, swinging doors and all, suggests he may have wanted to make a different film, but he didn't shirk his duty to Fox.

♈Joseph McBride, Ford at Fox, pg. 13

♉Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford, pg. 52