Dynamite
About Dynamite
Coal miner Hagon Derk is sentenced to hang and wants money for his sister Katie. Socialite Cynthia Crothers must be married by her twenty-third birthday, a month away, to inherit her grandfather's millions. She is tied to Roger Towne, whose wife Marcia will divorce him for $100,000. Cynthia pays Hagon $10,000 to marry her. The real killer confesses minutes before the hanging, and Hagon is free. He finds Cynthia writing Marcia a $25,000 check, shows it to Roger, and throws the party out of the house. To keep the fortune she has to be living with her husband on her birthday, so she goes to the mining town. A child's injury sends her for a city specialist. Roger and Hagon are then trapped by a cave-in. Hagon and Cynthia get out. Roger sets off the dynamite and is killed.
Cast & crew
More about Dynamite
Cecil B. DeMille directed and produced his first full-length sound film. A silent version was released at the same time. Jeanie MacPherson, John Howard Lawson, and Gladys Unger wrote the screenplay. J. Peverell Marley photographed it and Anne Bauchens edited it. MGM released it in the United States on 13 December 1929, through Loew's.
Themes
Look
J. Peverell Marley shot the society rooms and the mine cave-in.
Notes
- Kay Johnson plays Cynthia Crothers. Charles Bickford plays Hagon Derk. Conrad Nagel plays Roger Towne. Julia Faye plays Marcia Towne.
- Joel McCrea and Muriel McCormac are in the catalog cast. The Wikipedia cast list does not assign them roles in the summary.
- The Commons file is labeled version A, matching the fact that sound and silent versions went out together.
Scenes
- The real killer confesses minutes before Hagon is to hang.
- Hagon and Roger, trapped with fifteen minutes of air, argue over who will strike the dynamite charge.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Dynamite (version A).webm)
