Sat 26 Feb 2011
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: UNFORGOTTEN CRIME (1942).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[5] Comments
UNFORGOTTEN CRIME. Republic Pictures, 1942. Originally released as Affairs of Jimmy Valentine. Dennis O’Keefe, Ruth Terry, Gloria Dickson , Roman Bohnen, George E. Stone, Spencer Charters, Roscoe Ates. Based on the play Alias Jimmy Valentine by Paul Armstrong (1910). The play itself was based on O. Henry’s short story “A Retrieved Reformation,” Cosmopolitan, April 1903. Director: Bernard Vorhaus.
Unforgotten Crime [the title under which it was shown on TV] is a rare gem, a film that takes all the standard elements of the “B” feature and works them into a surprisingly thoughtful new form.
Dennis O’Keefe is the brassy radio reporter whose promotional scheme involves ferreting out the notorious Jimmy Valentine, a once-notorious cracksman now living under an assumed name in a small town (Roman Bohnen). When he offers a reward to the first one who finds Valentine, the town goes wild with outsiders in search of fortune vs. steady townsfolk suddenly suspicious of each other and consumed by their own greed.
Through all of this, the old dependable B-movie types walk through their fusty paces with a familiarity that borders on contempt: Pretty Ingenue, Dumb Cop, Bumbling Sidekick, Wisecracking Female Reporter, Cute Kid, etc. etc, played by old dependable character actors like Ruth Terry, Roscoe Ates, George E. Stone and Gloria Dickson.
Then something weird happens: They start acting like Real People; it’s like The Purple Rose of Cairo, where the characters abandon the story and start pursuing their own interests, and it makes for a fascinating bit of Cinemah.
I should mention that Unforgotten Crime, the copy I have, suffers from more than a few continuity gaps and sudden jumps, the result of being cruelly cut from its initial running time (seventy-four minutes, rather lengthy for a “B,” to a convenient-for-TV 54 minutes) and never restored.
Editorial Comment: There are two copies of this film offered for sale on Amazon, both under this title. One lists the running time as 52 minutes, the other doesn’t say, but since it’s the TV title, I suspect that it’s also the abbreviated version. (I recently purchased a copy offered by a collector-to-collector seller under the Jimmy Valentine title, but I have yet to watch it. Hopefully it is the longer version.)
February 26th, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Sadly it seems the DVD is the ‘mastered’ from the same source as my old VHS copy of this one. Still, as Dan says the film is interesting for the way it suddenly changes pace and voice with all the stereotypes acting like real human beings.
It would be fascinating to know if that was deliberate on the part of the writers and director.
Yet another variation of the story was shown on PBS in 1985 with a framing sequence of O Henry in prison at Ossing during an outbreak of some epidemic, and telling the story of “A Retrieved Reformation” to a dying con.
This version is a remake of the 1936 film with Roger Pryor. The story was also filmed in 1915 and 1920.
I think there was at least one adaptation of the story on one of the anthology series in the fifties — possibly O HENRY’S PLAYHOUSE hosted by Thomas Mitchell.
February 26th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Yes the story was filmed quite a few times. Too bad O.Henry himself never made much money from all of the film and TV adaptations of his work. (Unfortunately he died in 1910). But you have to admit that his stories were perfect for TV shows, and even when stretched out into films, usually still good.
It took some looking, but your memory’s right on. That 50s TV adaption has to be “Alias Jimmy Balentine” [sic] which appeared on Ponds Theater (aka Kraft Television Theater) in 1953:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0622703/
February 26th, 2011 at 11:55 pm
The 1915 version of “Alias Jimmy Valentine” is available on DVD. It’s included in a boxed set called The Origins of Film (1900-1926), but apparently it’s out of print, as sellers on Amazon are asking $125 and up for the 3-disk set.
February 27th, 2011 at 1:29 am
I’ve taken a look at the copy of AFFAIRS OF JIMMY VALENTINE that I thought I had, and (arrghh) it’s the shortened UNFORGOTTEN CRIME instead.
Which wouldn’t be all that bad, if that’s really the only copy around, but the picture quality is only mediocre at best. Sometimes you win with unknown sellers, but sometimes you don’t.
Unless this the best quality there is, which is also possible, this time I lost.
February 28th, 2011 at 2:06 am
They must have replayed that Kraft episode a lot since I was too little to remember it in 1953. I can recall seeing it either in the late fifties or early sixties though.
My own familial tie with O Henry is that my great grandfather had served with Lee Nace, the Texas Ranger captain who arrested Porter down in San Antonio and befriended him while he was awaiting extradition on the embezzlement charges. Nace was the model for the Ranger Captain in “The Caballero’s Way,” the story that introduced the Cisco Kid, and in several other O Henry stories.
True O Henry never really made much from his work, but then he may have been grateful just to be out of prison.
As far as I know all the extant copies of this film are equally bad, all mastered from the same source as the old VHS tape I have of the film. Maybe someday a better copy will show up.