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Afraid to Talk

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Afraid to Talk
Directed byEdward L. Cahn
Screenplay byTom Reed
Albert Maltz (play)
George Sklar (play)
Produced byCarl Laemmle, Jr.
StarringEric Linden
Sidney Fox
Tully Marshall
Louis Calhern
George Meeker
Robert Warwick
CinematographyKarl Freund
Edited byMilton Carruth
Music byJames Dietrich
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • December 1, 1932 (1932-12-01)
Running time
69 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Afraid to Talk is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Tom Reed. The film stars Eric Linden, Sidney Fox, Tully Marshall, Louis Calhern, George Meeker and Robert Warwick. The film was released on December 1, 1932, by Universal Pictures.[1][2][3]

Plot

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In an unnamed metropolitan city during the Depression, corrupt mayor Billy Manning is running for re-election, and his political allies in the party machine do their best to burnish his public image.

When a local mobster is shot in his hotel room by a speakeasy owner/racketeer named Jig Skelli the crime is witnessed by bellhop Eddie Martin, who had been waiting on him. The police take Martin into custody, and A.D.A. John Wade, part of the Mayor's clique, pressures Martin to name Jig as the killer, going as far as to prevent his wife Peggy from warning him other thugs have threatened the couple with death if they testify. Martin's name is released to the media as the prime witness. Jig's brother Joe takes a private meeting with court officials, warning them he has documents from the dead mobster that detail all the corrupt activities of the Mayor's cronies, including their interests with the mob, and to protect their interests, wrangle the charges to be dropped and Jig to be freed. Eddie and Peggy are promised a protective move to New York to keep them safe from retaliation.

Associates of Jig Skelli celebrate his release by shooting up the neighborhood, and an innocent child is killed in the gunfire. Since they cannot reindict Jig lest he reveal his secrets, the Mayor's clique take advantage of circumstantial evidence to present an alternate theory that Eddie was the killer. He is arrested before he and his wife's previously promised move, and violently interrogated in the hope of pressuring a forced confession. A doctor on scene insists if he is not taken to hospital, Eddie will die, and A.D.A. Wade reluctantly lets him be taken there to recuperate.

In hospital, a sympathetic doctor sneaks a progressive lawyer into Eddie's room, and enough evidence is gathered that could counter the city's case against him. In desperation, the clique arranges for Eddie to be killed in a manufactured hanging. However, Police Commissioner Garvey, who has quit in protest of the frame-up, manages to reach the detention facility in time to save Eddie's life.

The press reveals that the criminal activities of the Mayor and his cronies have been exposed; the party chairman and A.D.A. Hyde have managed to keep themselves out of records of these events, allowing them to keep their jobs and reputations. However, Hyde has been wildcatting with Jig Skelli's girlfriend Marge Winters, and is killed by the Skellis. When asked for a quote by reporters, the party chair defends Hyde's reputation as a prosecutor, and wonders where another man of integrity to lead the city will be found.

Cast

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References

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  1. ^ "Afraid to Talk (1932) - Overview". TCM.com. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  2. ^ Hall, Mordaunt (December 19, 1932). "Movie Review - Afraid to Talk - Edward Arnold and Louis Calhern in a Melodrama Concerned With Grafting Officials and Gangsters". NYTimes.com. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  3. ^ "Afraid to Talk". Afi.com. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
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