It is very apparent from the moment that you see the dour and iron-fisted Virginia Brissac at the beginning of this movie that she is a long lost relative of the wicked witch of the west, an evil spinster who oversees the scales of a cotton weighing station. Her brother (Joe King) is the more civilized seeming head of this sharecropper plantation where houses are lent out to farmers to raise cotton with the promise that the cotton they bring in will be paid for fair and squarely thanks to their hard work. While King and Brissac live in a Tara sized mansion, the farmers live in squalor, and every method is utilized to rip them off, from the altered scales of the cotton weighing machine to the scales inside the general store and even the fees deducted from what they are told their cotton is worth. Mysterious newcomer Gordon Oliver shows up as several of the farmers are ripped off, and it is very apparent that he is out to break up this racket. Oliver befriends the pretty Jean Muir who lives with her grandfather (the always lovable Harry Davenport) who utilizes biblical scripture to warn King of his misdeeds, and when the warehouse with the collected cotton is burnt down, King creates various methods to discredit Oliver, leading to a lynching party and a violent showdown between Muir and Brissac.
In my reviews of various films where the poor and unfortunate are either exploited, enslaved or treated with inhumanity, I have stated that these situations will make the viewer very angry, and indeed, from the very first scene of this film, that anger begins to erupt. There are several plot holes which leads the film away from being truly successful in its mission, and perhaps it is also too short, running just an hour where more detail could have been given in to how this racket began, the anger rising amongst the farmers, and of course, what happens when all is exposed. This was the last contractual film at Warner Brothers for Jean Muir who had the potential of being a huge star and at one time was one of their highest regarded ingenues. While this is definitely a "B" film, it is an important film because of the message it provides, and unlike other stars whose time was fading at the most politically motivated of Hollywood's big five, Muir went out with something she could be proud of. Howard Philips has a major part as one of the local farmers who leads the others to revolt but is briefly manipulated into believing that Oliver is behind all the dirty doings going on. This film has seemed to have slipped through the cracks when the top films of Warner Brothers' golden age are discussed, and hopefully it will have a chance for re-discovery because its message remains timely even 80 years later.
In my reviews of various films where the poor and unfortunate are either exploited, enslaved or treated with inhumanity, I have stated that these situations will make the viewer very angry, and indeed, from the very first scene of this film, that anger begins to erupt. There are several plot holes which leads the film away from being truly successful in its mission, and perhaps it is also too short, running just an hour where more detail could have been given in to how this racket began, the anger rising amongst the farmers, and of course, what happens when all is exposed. This was the last contractual film at Warner Brothers for Jean Muir who had the potential of being a huge star and at one time was one of their highest regarded ingenues. While this is definitely a "B" film, it is an important film because of the message it provides, and unlike other stars whose time was fading at the most politically motivated of Hollywood's big five, Muir went out with something she could be proud of. Howard Philips has a major part as one of the local farmers who leads the others to revolt but is briefly manipulated into believing that Oliver is behind all the dirty doings going on. This film has seemed to have slipped through the cracks when the top films of Warner Brothers' golden age are discussed, and hopefully it will have a chance for re-discovery because its message remains timely even 80 years later.