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Back Door To Heaven

1939, Movie, NR, 81 mins

Back Door To Heaven: Review

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Considered in its day to be a potent social docu-drama, this film is both awkward and amateurish in its attempt to exonerate criminal Ford (as the adult Frankie) of guilt because of his bad breaks and indifferent parents. Lydon (as the young Frankie) is a misfit in school even though his teacher, McMahon, shows him special consideration. Lydon's delivery never gets beyond a flat monotone that is often laughable, especially after he is sent to a reformatory for petty theft. His reaction to the news that he is being sent away is one of disagreeable sulkiness, although he is undoubtedly relieved at being separated from his drunken father, who beats him for the slightest infraction. Inside the reformatory he grows up to be Ford, a tough inmate who'll take on guards, other prisoners, and even the warden if he's riled. When finally released with friend Erwin, he attempts to go straight and find a job, but it's the middle of the Depression and no one is hiring. Well, a man's got to live, so Ford, Erwin, and others get involved in a bank robbery, during which a guard is murdered. Ford is picked up, railroaded for the killing in the best Hollywood tradition, and sentenced to death. But there is still hope left. McMahon is holding a reunion of her grammar school class and Ford breaks out of Death Row to attend! While he is en route, his classmates chastise one another over his fate. The wealthy and successful are indicted for doing nothing to help their errant classmate; they could have helped Ford get a job, loans, a lawyer to protect his rights. Feeling bloated with guilt, the class is relieved when Ford bursts through the schoolhouse door--the cops hot on his trail--to tell them he went bad on his own and they shouldn't feel upset about his fate. He weeps, hugs his friends and the kind, trusting, almost totally silent teacher (if McMahon uttered 10 sentences throughout the film they wound up on the cutting room floor), then dives outside. The classmates rush to the windows, wincing and grimacing as machine-gun fire is heard and Ford is cut to pieces. This venture into social statement by producer-writer-director Howard wowed the critics at its premiere. On viewing today the film appears hopeless in its attempts to vindicate its main character, and the acting is terrible, as if Howard instructed his cast to play their roles as zombies. leave a comment
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