Invisible Stripes

I mentioned at the beginning of the month when I discussed the selection of Humphrey Bogart as Star of the Month that I had one of his supporting roles on my DVR that I hadn't blogged about before. That movie, Invisible Stripes, is finally coming up on the TCM schedule, tomorrow morning at 5:00, or overnight tonight if you want to think about it that way, especially if you're on the west coast.

Bogart isn't the star here, and the last time TCM ran it, it wasn't for Bogart, but for another future star who was even earlier in his career, a very young William Holden. Holden plays Tim Taylor, younger brother of Cliff, who is played by the film's real star, George Raft. Cliff has recently gotten out of prison, and has found that as a man on probation, it's very difficult to get a good job, because a lot of employers don't want to take a chance on somebody on probation. And when he does get a job, he always seems to have co-workers who find out about his stint in prison and make life hell for him because of it.

Meanwhile, back at home, young Tim has always been the good brother, and Cliff doesn't want to see Tim go the wrong way. Tim has a girlfriend in Peggy (Jane Bryan), and has dreams of becoming an auto mechanic and eventually even opening up his own shop. Of course, this being the late 1930s with the lingering effects of the Depression, those dreams seem an awfully long way away. Tim sees the treatment that Cliff is getting, and this really bugs Tim, who would like to defend his big brother.

As for Bogart, he plays Charles Martin, a guy that Cliff met in prison. Charles has gotten out of prison, too. But unlike Cliff, he doesn't have a younger brother, and indeed has a gang that he was the leader of back in the day. So for him it's a lot easier to return to crime, especially because it gives him the high life that honest chumps like Cliff and Tim aren't able to achieve.

Cliff decides he's going to sacrifice himself, more or less. He joins in with Martin's gang, with the plan of using his take of the haul to help Tim open up that garage. Obviously, Tim isn't about to take any money earned illicitly, so Cliff leaves the rest of the family behind, claiming that he's a salesman on the road, which is how he's earning good money, when in fact he's just in a different part of the same big city they've always lived in. That's important because of what happens when Cliff decides he wants out of the gang. The dissension with in the ranks leads to a botched job, and Martin trying to use Tim's garage as a place to escape to and then out the back. And he's got the knowledge of how Tim really got that money as a weapon he can hold over Tim's head.

If there's one problem with Invisible Stripes, it's that the movie has to hew to the Production Code, which makes the ending a bit of a mess. Other than that, it's a fine example of the B movies that Warner Bros. was putting out in the 1930s. While I've always suggested my view that Warner Bros. had the best B movies, Invisible Stripes is helped by an even better cast than usual. Bogart was pretty clearly on his way to stardom, even if he still wasn't being given leading roles in A movies. I don't think the studio had any idea how much of a star Holden would become. Raft, I think, was already on the way down, which is why he was reduced to leading lower-budget stuff like this.

Still, thanks to the level of talent here, Invisible Stripes is a cut above some of those other B movies. One interesting bit of trivia that I think I mentioned at the beginning of the month. Early in the movie, the characters are outside a movie theater showing a movie called You Can't Get Away With Murder. It turns out this is a real movie, and one that stars Humphrey Bogart, having been released a few months before Invisible Stripes. You'll have a chance to see You Can't Get Away With Murder at 7:15 AM tomorrow.