This is actually quite an interesting little film. It strongly resembles something of a 'take' on Madame Bovery as seen from the perspective of Charles Bovery, in the context of The Great Depression and unrestricted by the enforcement of the dreaded 'Hayes Code'.
Madge Evens (Dorothy Day) is a middle class woman with two children, a full time maid (Una Merkel) and a sense of entitlement which includes comfort, luxury and material wealth to the extent where she can flaunt it to establish a prestigious place in society (her 'friends'compliment her on being able to 'manage' with only one servant). Husband Richard Dix (John Day), has been caught fudging his accounts at work to keep up with his wife's demands and is arrested. Veteran villain Conway Tearle(Hollins), who has a yen for Dorothy, arranges for a lawyer who sabotages the defense. John gets ten years probation with two years in the LA County Jail, high atop the County building, all the better for Hollens to work his way to get on top of Dorothy. Dorothy has to get a 'job' with Hollins and in one significant incident, after the family's Ford is repossessed, she drives up in Hollins' 'spare' Packard roadster. The children have been literally farmed out to her maid and her maid's sweetie, Stew Erwin, the milkman. Dorothy eventually replaces Hollins' secretary as his main squeeze and when she protests is fired. The secretary shows up at Hollins' hideaway penthouse and shoots Dorothy dead. John is devastated by the news and when he learns that Hollins has been sent to the County Jail he searches him out sunbathing on the roof. Hollins sees John coming and leaps at him and they fight near the parapet. Trying to get away from him Hollins goes over the parapet but John follows him and they fight. John slides down just holding on to the gutter while Hollins, holding on to the bars of a window tries to step on his fingers. Hart (!) (Raymond Hatton who steals the movie) John's prison trustee friend hits Hollins' hand with a crutch and Hollins loses his grip and falls to the pavement far below.
First of all, it is interesting to note that pre-code Richard Dix actually committed a crime, much like Charles Bovery really incompetently botched the operation which causes his, and Emma's, downfall. Dorothy willingly becomes Hollins' mistress for the luxury while her husband is in jail. Even though Day was clearly murderous in his intent and his actions directly lead to Hollins' death he goes unpunished. Hart, who actually caused Hollen's death is told that he's in a lot of trouble but he laughs it off saying 'second degree manslaughter and nothing more' the funniest line in the picture. Hollins, who didn't actually kill Day's wife, dies anyway. After the code an extra ten minutes would have been added to the plot to show that the protagonist had been innocent and was framed, usually by the villain. The wife's being killed by a jealous ex-lover would become dying defending her honor. The villain's own guilty conscience would have lead to his death from a fatal accident. With all of this social manoeuvering a crisp 67 minute running time would have been diverted into a 1:20+ of orotund moralizing.
There was a clear social message on display. DAY OF RECKONING was made at the height of the depression and there was some self congratulatory self-righteousness that the vanity and greed of the middle classes might have landed them into the hands of shame, incarceration, adultery and death, they, the salt of the earth, the honest and modest working people, who were upright and hard working, would inherit the earth. Sort of a variation on the old "You may tempt the upper classes/With your villainous demitasses,/But Heaven will protect the working girl." People were in constant need of reassurance of the ultimate virtue of 'poor but honest' over 'well-to-do and pretentious'.
The profession of milkman, now extinct, was an interesting one. First of all milkmen were completely garbed in pure white. Secondly it was a working class profession which survived the depression. Everyone needed milk. Hard working milkmen didn't lose their jobs and it was a job on the fringe of being a small time entrepreneur. Milkmen could increase their earnings by selling more milk.
The picture ends with a remarkable sequence. There is a shot of a jail hallway, with a row of barred cells on the right, streaks of shadows on the left setting up strong converging lines which end at a barred jail door. Slowly the shot is superimposed over a shot of aspens against the sky moving in a breeze. The silhouetted figure of a man in uniform appears in slow motion on the other side of the door seeming to lean over perhaps to put a key in the lock. The jail image fades out and is replaced by just the trees and sky. This is followed by a shot of a figure in white at the top of a lawn, her dress billowing in the wind, smaller figures around her, a white clapboard house at the top of the grade and surrounded by bowers of trees at the edges, out of focus in an effect known as vignetting. This recalls the photographic style called pictoralism. Some of these photographers later went into the movies one of whom, Hendrik Sartov, was famous for his one element lens which became a mainstay of D.W. Griffith. A closer shot reveals that the woman in white is Una Merkel with two small children and a dog. John is being driven towards them by the milkman in his horse drawn wagon.
One of the reactions to the depression was patriotic historicism and there was revival of interest in the past which included the myth of the agrarian paradise. The master of this myth was Griffith so this is a most Griffithsonian ending.
Madge Evens (Dorothy Day) is a middle class woman with two children, a full time maid (Una Merkel) and a sense of entitlement which includes comfort, luxury and material wealth to the extent where she can flaunt it to establish a prestigious place in society (her 'friends'compliment her on being able to 'manage' with only one servant). Husband Richard Dix (John Day), has been caught fudging his accounts at work to keep up with his wife's demands and is arrested. Veteran villain Conway Tearle(Hollins), who has a yen for Dorothy, arranges for a lawyer who sabotages the defense. John gets ten years probation with two years in the LA County Jail, high atop the County building, all the better for Hollens to work his way to get on top of Dorothy. Dorothy has to get a 'job' with Hollins and in one significant incident, after the family's Ford is repossessed, she drives up in Hollins' 'spare' Packard roadster. The children have been literally farmed out to her maid and her maid's sweetie, Stew Erwin, the milkman. Dorothy eventually replaces Hollins' secretary as his main squeeze and when she protests is fired. The secretary shows up at Hollins' hideaway penthouse and shoots Dorothy dead. John is devastated by the news and when he learns that Hollins has been sent to the County Jail he searches him out sunbathing on the roof. Hollins sees John coming and leaps at him and they fight near the parapet. Trying to get away from him Hollins goes over the parapet but John follows him and they fight. John slides down just holding on to the gutter while Hollins, holding on to the bars of a window tries to step on his fingers. Hart (!) (Raymond Hatton who steals the movie) John's prison trustee friend hits Hollins' hand with a crutch and Hollins loses his grip and falls to the pavement far below.
First of all, it is interesting to note that pre-code Richard Dix actually committed a crime, much like Charles Bovery really incompetently botched the operation which causes his, and Emma's, downfall. Dorothy willingly becomes Hollins' mistress for the luxury while her husband is in jail. Even though Day was clearly murderous in his intent and his actions directly lead to Hollins' death he goes unpunished. Hart, who actually caused Hollen's death is told that he's in a lot of trouble but he laughs it off saying 'second degree manslaughter and nothing more' the funniest line in the picture. Hollins, who didn't actually kill Day's wife, dies anyway. After the code an extra ten minutes would have been added to the plot to show that the protagonist had been innocent and was framed, usually by the villain. The wife's being killed by a jealous ex-lover would become dying defending her honor. The villain's own guilty conscience would have lead to his death from a fatal accident. With all of this social manoeuvering a crisp 67 minute running time would have been diverted into a 1:20+ of orotund moralizing.
There was a clear social message on display. DAY OF RECKONING was made at the height of the depression and there was some self congratulatory self-righteousness that the vanity and greed of the middle classes might have landed them into the hands of shame, incarceration, adultery and death, they, the salt of the earth, the honest and modest working people, who were upright and hard working, would inherit the earth. Sort of a variation on the old "You may tempt the upper classes/With your villainous demitasses,/But Heaven will protect the working girl." People were in constant need of reassurance of the ultimate virtue of 'poor but honest' over 'well-to-do and pretentious'.
The profession of milkman, now extinct, was an interesting one. First of all milkmen were completely garbed in pure white. Secondly it was a working class profession which survived the depression. Everyone needed milk. Hard working milkmen didn't lose their jobs and it was a job on the fringe of being a small time entrepreneur. Milkmen could increase their earnings by selling more milk.
The picture ends with a remarkable sequence. There is a shot of a jail hallway, with a row of barred cells on the right, streaks of shadows on the left setting up strong converging lines which end at a barred jail door. Slowly the shot is superimposed over a shot of aspens against the sky moving in a breeze. The silhouetted figure of a man in uniform appears in slow motion on the other side of the door seeming to lean over perhaps to put a key in the lock. The jail image fades out and is replaced by just the trees and sky. This is followed by a shot of a figure in white at the top of a lawn, her dress billowing in the wind, smaller figures around her, a white clapboard house at the top of the grade and surrounded by bowers of trees at the edges, out of focus in an effect known as vignetting. This recalls the photographic style called pictoralism. Some of these photographers later went into the movies one of whom, Hendrik Sartov, was famous for his one element lens which became a mainstay of D.W. Griffith. A closer shot reveals that the woman in white is Una Merkel with two small children and a dog. John is being driven towards them by the milkman in his horse drawn wagon.
One of the reactions to the depression was patriotic historicism and there was revival of interest in the past which included the myth of the agrarian paradise. The master of this myth was Griffith so this is a most Griffithsonian ending.
