Classic Film Guide

Two Against the World (1936)

Also titled One Fatal Hour (1936), and not to be confused with the 1932 film of the same name!

Directed by William McGann, this inferior remake to the Academy Award nominated Best Picture Five Star Final (1931) replaces Edward G. Robinson with Humphrey Bogart, and Boris Karloff with Harry Hayden, else the rest of the cast (save the always reliable Henry O'Neill) is forgettable. The setting is changed from a newspaper business to a radio broadcasting company, but the story is virtually identical otherwise. This film is 25 minutes shorter than the original which, along with the story's powerful message, makes this drama watch-able nonetheless.

Bogart plays a program manager who's urged by his ratings conscious superiors to run a serial about a true 20 year old murder case, which tragically affects those involved then, today. Beverly Roberts is a poor substitute for Aline MacMahon as Bogart's secretary. Even though the murderess (Helen MacKellar) had been exonerated and is living quietly with her husband (O'Neill) now, the station owner and his marketing manager (Robert Middlemass and Clay Clement) are more concerned with making money than how the story might disrupt the cleared woman or her family. Bogart sends Hayden to update the story by calling on the murderess; he finds that their daughter (Linda Perry) is to marry the son (Carlyle Moore, Jr.) of a steel executive (Douglas Wood). Claire Dodd gets barely any screen-time as the writer hired for her looks, compared to Ona Munson in the original. Hobart Cavanaugh plays a role with virtually no purpose; in the original, his character didn't exist, though there was an "idea boy" played enthusiastically by George Stone.

*** SPOILERS ***

When Hayden breaks the story, the murderess, followed by her husband, commits suicide after the steel executive and his wife (Virginia Brissac) tell them the wedding is off. The showdown between their distraught daughter and the radio station men hasn't anywhere near the impact of the original, and Bogart's character, in lieu of her fiancé, disarms her!