The Star Witness

Smooth programmer from that gangster mecca of the 30's, Warner Bros.- First National. Chic Sale's boisterous old man steals the show as a Civil War vet who's not about to surrender to age. (Actually, Sale's still in his 40's.) The actor spreads it on pretty thick, while the rest of the cast remains surprisingly low-key for the time. As the hard-driving DA, Huston's his usual authoritative self, lending the movie a sense of needed gravity.

Except for the shootout scene, the movie's more a family drama than anything else. Witnesses to the shootout, the Leeds' family, has to decide whether to testify against the chief gangster or endanger the one young son who's being held hostage. In short, is their first duty to community or to family. The dilemma generates the movie's main suspense. My favorite scene, however, is the family dinner where the two little boys see who can out pig-stick the other as the dishes get passed around. It's a lively, well-directed bit of nonsense.

It's easy to miss what Grandpa' s (Sale) sometimes saying when he orates on the duties of being an American. His repeated references to the problems "foreigners" are making sounds rather contemporary (2015). But for Gramps, it sounds like he's blaming Italians since the gangster "Campo" is the one making problems for his family. But then in 1931, big Al Capone was making headlines as the racketeer boss of Chicago. So he may be the real reference behind Gramps' innuendo. Otherwise, the old man makes a pretty good case for putting community first.

That aside, the movie's a generally entertaining, smoothly directed artifact of the period.