Born Reckless
About Born Reckless
Louis Beretti is caught in a jewelry robbery. A judge who wants the war in the papers for his re-election offers Louis and two friends jail or the army, and a clean slate if they make good. Louis comes home. One friend is dead. Louis opens a nightclub staffed by his old gang and stays in touch with a gangster called Big. He loves Joan, the dead friend's sister, who is already planning to marry. He tells her to call if she needs him. Her baby is taken while her husband is away. Louis works out that Big's men did it, brings the child back, and then meets Big at the club. They talk, then shoot. Big drops behind the bar doors. Louis walks out leaning on Bill and asks for his bottle.
Cast & crew
More about Born Reckless
John Ford directed. Andrew Bennison staged the dialogue. Dudley Nichols wrote the screenplay from Donald Henderson Clarke's 1929 novel Louis Beretti. James Kevin McGuinness produced it for Fox. George Schneiderman photographed it. Fox released it on May 11, 1930. It runs 82 minutes.
Themes
Background
The story starts with a 1917 robbery and a judge using the draft as a sentence, then moves to a nightclub after the war.
Making
Ford directed the picture. Bennison, a dialogue director, is credited with staging the talking scenes, a split credit common on early sound films.
Reviews
Mordaunt Hall's review ran in The New York Times on June 7, 1930.
Look
George Schneiderman shot the nightclub and the street scenes for Fox.
Music
The closing shot uses 'The Caissons Go Rolling Along'. George Lipschultz and Albert Hay Malotte are credited with music.
Preservation
A print is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Edmund Lowe plays Louis Beretti. Catherine Dale Owen plays Joan Sheldon. Lee Tracy plays Bill O'Brien.
- Randolph Scott plays Dick Milburn. Ward Bond plays a sergeant. John Wayne is an uncredited soldier.
- The end title sits over the skyline while the band plays 'The Caissons Go Rolling Along'.
- George Lipschultz and Albert Hay Malotte are listed as composers.
- Mordaunt Hall reviewed it in The New York Times on June 7, 1930, under the heading 'The Missing Witness'.
Scenes
- The judge offers the army instead of a sentence.
- Louis brings the baby back and returns to the club.
- Big falls behind the swinging doors, and Louis calls for his bottle.
Influenced by
- Louis Beretti (novel by Donald Henderson Clarke, 1929)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Born Reckless (1930).webm)
