The Get-Away (1941) watch online HD

Not a bad little film in many ways when you consider when it was made by MGM - clearly as the opener in a Double Feature Bill. The cast is surprisingly good with perhaps Dan Dailey as the standout, and playing the brother of Donna Reed and never able to go straight despite all her efforts. Robert Sterling goes over the top in his early scenes, but settles down as the story progresses. Charles Winninger as the drunken Doctor has some fine and not-so-fine moments in a major role, and it was great to see one of the good old B-players in Veda Ann Borg. The shoot-out near the end was ideal for a programmer and would have left audiences in those days in a good frame of mind for the Main Attraction

This is a good little crime movie that is often overlooked. It is not even rated in the Maltin book. But, if you enjoy movies with a nice simple plot about prisons, break-outs, federal agents chasing crime gangs, sister trying to save wayward brother, etc. you will like this film. Robert Sterling does a fine job and interacts well with Dan Dailey and Donna Reed. Dailey's role is that of a hard and tough criminal who resists all efforts to go straight. Donna Reed, as his long suffering sister does her best to reform him. There's a great shoot-out scene that will please action fans and the final ending is handled very well and contains real suspense.

Viewers will recognize The Getaway as a remake of another MGM B picture, Public Hero #1. But another film along similar lines was so much better, that being White Heat.

Still there's no shame in being associated with being with this solid B action film. Robert Sterling plays a youthful FBI agent who goes undercover in prison to arrange an escape for mobster Dan Dailey who heads the infamous River Gang the FBI wants to nail. Sterling is to infiltrate and find the gang's hideout.

Dailey has the Cody Jarrett role here and while he's not nuts with a mother complex like James Cagney was, he's got some issues. But he's also shrewd and paranoid which is always a deadly combination. Dailey steals this film.

The Getaway was also the film debut of Donna Reed who plays Dan Dailey's sister who unlike Cody Jarrett's mother is seriously trying to reform him. Sterling takes a liking to here. There's also Charles Winninger a doctor with a thirst problem who I wouldn't let near me with a scalpel. Winninger has an interesting way of collecting his fees.

Good action film with a nice climactic shootout.

This is a B-movie from MGM and is interesting for several reasons. Most importantly, it's Donna Reed's first film and I liked how she played a rather tough character--a nice departure from her TV mom role of the 50s and 60s. She also was incredibly beautiful and I can see how this film led to better roles. Also, it's interesting to see Dan Daily playing in a non-musical role--and a very gritty role as well. Frankly, I always preferred Daily as the actor versus him as the song and dance man he usually played.

As for the star of the film, Robert Serling, he's a guy who kind of fell off the face of the earth--going from some nice films at MGM to obscurity so quickly. Despite making some nice films and appearing in quite a few films and shows over his long life, real stardom eluded this handsome guy. In 1941, you would have undoubtedly predicted more of a starring career--as he'd been in films opposite the likes of Clark Gable!

This is an interesting prison film where Sterling plays an incredibly nasty and obnoxious young hood. He is definitely no shrinking violet during his stay in "the big house"! Eventually, he is able to orchestrate a breakout with his cell-mate (Daily) and this leads to some very, very interesting and somewhat unexpected results. The film is somewhat reminiscent of "White Heat" and other noir films from the later 40s, though I am not in any way suggesting it's the same plot or quite as gritty. A very good B movie that kept my interest due to a very good script, good acting and a nice MGM polish that makes this film so much nicer and well made than the typical B. The only sour note is near the end--smart Sterling behaves rather stupidly and his actions seemed pretty inconsistent. But, it didn't ruin the film and can be ignored--though it did make the film a little less edgy.

While I have learned from one of the other reviews that this film is a close remake of "Public Hero #1", I still enjoyed it--so much so that I hope to also see the original--especially since I really like Chester Morris, Jean Arthur and Lionel Barrymore and would love to see what they did with this material.

UPDATE (10/10): I just saw the original film ("Public Hero #1") and the other reviews were right--it's practically the exact same film throughout. Because of this, "The Getaway" must lose a point for lacking originality and have adjusted my review accordingly.

Pretty much a shot-for-shot remake of Public Hero #1. Because of this and the fact that it's more polished than the earlier film, this one's not as good. It's watchable but ultimately forgettable. The only thing noteworthy about it is that it's the film debut of Donna Reed. She's beautiful and the best part of the movie. Dan Dailey and Robert Sterling are bland. Charles Winninger and Henry O'Neill are enjoyable in supporting roles. If you haven't seen the original, you're likely to enjoy this one far more. I would caution you against reading too much about either film because there's a twist in the plot that is best left unspoiled. Chances are you've already been spoiled since all plot summaries, including TCM's, give it away. Still, I've left the plot out of my review just in case.

Robert Sterling (Jeff) is a loud-mouthed, brash prisoner who gets the treatment that he deserves whilst staying in prison. He engineers an escape with Dan Dailey (Dinkie) who is part of an organized gang that the police have been trying to smash for a while. However, Sterling isn't who he seems to be and he is put into a difficult situation with the arrival of Donna Reed (Maria). She is looking for her brother - guess who - yep, it's psycho-man Dailey - and she finds out the truth about her brother and Sterling. During all of this, the police have only one mission - to stop Dailey's gang.

This is an entertaining fast-paced film with the best performances coming from Dailey and Reed. Sterling is way over-the-top at the beginning of the film and quite annoying. Similarly, Charles Winninger is annoying as he provides needless comedy as a drunk doctor. The film never drags and so must be given credit although the love affair between Reed and Sterling is somewhat unconvincing, especially at the end of the film when she would HATE him. As it is, we get some cuddly stuff.

The ending is quite tense as we follow Dailey into a dancehall and we realize that his time is up. It's obviously influenced by Dillinger's last moments as he was staked out and then shot down as he left a cinema. They even give Dailey a dolly-bird escort as he leaves the venue, just as Dillinger left with his dolly-bird, although in Dillinger's case she was implicated in his betrayal. Nothing of that sort here but we do get a shoot-out.

Anyone else realize that this is almost a shot-for-shot remake of "Public Hero #1" staring Jean Arthur and Chester Morris (1935)? With Lionel Barrymore playing the doctor and Joseph Calleia playing Sonny.

It also appears the same screenplay was used for both pictures as the writing credits overlap. Different directors though

Public Hero #1 (1935) : Directed by J. Walter Ruben. Writing credits: J. Walter Ruben story, Wells Root story, Wells Root screenplay

The Get-Away (1941) : Directed by Edward Buzzell , Richard Rosson (uncredited). Writing credits: W.R. Burnett screenplay, Wells Root screenplay, Wells Root story, J. Walter Ruben story

Having seen both pictures, I think the 1935 Jean Arthur/Chester Morris effort is the better of the two. Anyone who likes "The Get-Away' should checkout "Public Hero #1".

Not Really Their Forte, MGM Tried Out the Gangster Formula, so Successful for WB, and it is an Adequate Attempt. A Remake, this has been Chided for being a Shot for Shot Copy of Public Hero (1935).

On its Own there are a Few Things that Make it Worth a Watch. Dan Daley as a Creepy Hood who is a "Brother from Hell" to Donna Reed (in Her debut). Miss Reed Over Emotes Most of the Time that gets on the Nerves as does Robert Sterling's Over the Top Portrayal as an Inmate and a Smarmy Romantic Lead. Another Irritant is Charles Winninger as an Alcoholic Doctor.

On the Up Side, it has Typical High Production Standards from the Studio and the Ending Shootout is Bullet Ridden and the Second Ending is done with Suspense and Feels Like it is Dillinger Inspired.

Recommended for Fans of Gangster and G-Men Movies and if the Irritating Characters (except for an excellent portrayal by Daley), don't Get-In-Your-Way, it is a Fun and Exciting Film at Times.

Wow! A preternaturally cute,just past teenage, Donna Reed in her first movie, emoting with all she had. Dan Daily-of all people-playing the heavy. A real menace. In an uncredited role, the immortal Veda Ann Borg.

The story is old. It had been done before and even more afterward, but who cares. It's a b-movie, but with MGM high production values. A dance hall scene seems to have hundreds of extras. So suspend critical judgment (and even basic intelligence) and sit back and have fun.

My favorite scene is when Dan Daily, hiding out and in disguise so that he would not be recognized, approaches Veda Ann Borg in a dance hall and asks to dance with her. What better way to deflect any attention to yourself than to dance with the showiest blond in Hollywood history?

Jeff Crane (Robert Sterling) is a tough guy who leads with his mouth and bluster. For committing a crime, he's shown being processed into a prison run by Warden Alcott (Henry O'Neill), and given a cell with another hard case Sonny Black (Dan Dailey). There are then several typical prison flick scenes (could be from The Big House (1930), also looks similar to the sets used in Brute Force (1947)) including a food complaint riot, started by Crane, who's then put in the "hole" for 3 weeks. When he's returned to his cell, he's earned a modicum of respect from his cell mate.

With help from the outside, Crane helps Black breakout of prison. The two escaped cons travel to Chicago where they stay with Moose Jones (Ernest Whitman), a con they knew in prison that was just released. However, when he gets "big eyes" over the reward being offered, Black kills him. Crane and Black then travel to Wisconsin, where Black has a home in a respectable neighborhood, with a servant Sam (Chester Gan).

It is learned that Crane is really an FBI agent undercover, working for Jim Duff (Donald Douglas), assigned to freeing Black in order to bag the leader of his gang. Black was wounded in the escape, and Crane must retrieve a doctor Black knows to help. Dr. Glass (Charles Winninger) is a stereotypical physician who helps criminals, he's got a drinking problem.

En route to getting Glass, Crane meets Maria Theresa 'Terry' O'Reilly (Donna Reed, in her film debut!), who he reluctantly (what, is he crazy?) helps. Crane, Glass, and O'Reilly are unavoidably delayed on their return and have to spend the night at Mrs. Higgins (Clara Blandick). Crane then learns that Terry is Black's sister, though she hasn't seen him for 3 years, and wasn't aware of his criminal activities. Her nickname for her brother is Dinky.

After Black sends Crane to get Glass, he summons his gang from their hideout at Rufe Parker's (Grant Withers) and gives them instructions which distract the police for a while, so that he can recover.

Meanwhile, Crane and Terry get closer to one another, even though Duff warns Crane to keep his mind on the task at hand. When Crane returns from a meeting with Duff, he witnesses Black striking his sister causing him to lose control and punch Black, who ejects him from the house and his association. Crane and Terry end up riding on a bus back to town (with noted character actor George Guhl), while Black and the gang pull their next job. She returns home and Crane is fired. But Crane has an inspiration, he uses Glass to help him find the hideout and alerts the FBI to its whereabouts. A shootout ensues and everyone in the gang is captured or killed except its leader Black, who escapes.

Will the recognized hero, Crane, and the FBI figure out how to catch Black again? Will Crane be able to romantically pursue Terry, now that she knows he's with the FBI and is working against her brother? I'd expect a Hollywood ending if I were you;-)

Directed by Edward Buzzell and Richard Rosson, uncredited. A remake of Public Hero #1 (1935) with a better known cast including Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur, Chester Morris, Joseph Calleia, and Lewis Stone. Also in this version though, Roy Gordon plays a prison board member that figures in the escape, Harry Hayden plays a train conductor, Veda Ann Borg plays a girl Black dances with later in the film; all three appear uncredited.

The "Crime Does Not Pay" series at MGM was a fast-moving collection of shorts, a variety of different situations of the law battling less than law-abiding citizens. Graff, murder, robbery, jail breaks and even an illegal baby racket were amongst the plot lines in this long-running part of MGM's shorts division. What is noticeable about these shorts is the fact that many of them couldn't be expanded past their 20 minute running time, and when MGM did get on the crime racket in their feature films, they weren't as successful as what Warner Brothers had done the decade before with Cagney and Robinson. Even then, Warners was the king of the gangster film, with those two still in the running and Bogart, John Garfield and George Raft more adept than the second stringers at MGM who were given on-screen screen tests in "B" features like this in order to prove their meddle.

Here, it is young Robert Sterling playing the lead, and he tries to prove his toughness in prison by kicking his seemingly tired bunkmate out of the lower berth. A violent but comical scene follows, but there's more to Sterling than meets the machine gun. Before you know it, he's on the run after a prison escape with a very young (and non-dancing) Dan Dailey and by some accident encounters Dailey's worried sister (Donna Reed) who has been searching for him. Charles Winninger offers comic relief as a doctor who appears to be bedridden and dying but is most likely recovering from cirrhosis of the liver.

Typical plot twists include one of the characters actually a federal investigator in disguise and another character being revealed to be "Mister Big" even though they have been providing comedy all along. "Auntie Em" Clara Blandick shows up briefly as a comic landlady, and there's some amusing dialog exchanges between Sterling and Reed. But a lot of the script features lines of speech which are senseless, as if the whole thing was rushed together. A lot longer than most "B" crime movies which MGM made during this time, and being six times longer than one of the "Crime Doesn't Pay Series" makes this seem stretched out to a needless length, ultimately making this one a major disappointment.

****SPOILERS**** Re-make of the 1935 gangster movie "Public Hero" this new and updated version has a 20 year old Donna Reed in her film debut as Terry O'Reilly-a fine Irish lass-who's brother Johnny "Dinkie" Black played by future song & dance man Dan Dailey had crashed out of prison. With a bullet in his chest and fellow convict Jeff Crane, Robert Sterling,the two head out to Chicago to lay low until the heat, law, cools off. Its then that we learn that convict Crane is really an undercover FBI Agent who got into prison and close to Dinkie so he can lead him to the notorious "River Gang" that he's the leader of. Hold out at a flophouse run by fellow but now released convict Moose Jones, Ernie Whitman, Dinkie makes more trouble for himself when in a spur of the moment he guns Moose down when he shows some interest in the $5,000.00 reward he can earn for himself in turning Dinkie in.

It's when Dinkie together with Crane get back to his home, a mansion with a Chinese butler, in Scottsford Wisconsin that Crane runs into Terry who at first he didn't know was Dinkie's kid sister, small world isn't it, and falls in love with her. With Dinkie on the mend due to him being treated by part time mob doctor and full time drunk Josiah Glass, Charles Winninger, he now plans to reunite with his gang and get back into business of payrolls robberies which the gang specializes in. That's unless Crane get the word out to his boss in the FBI Jim Duff, Donald Douglas, the gangs future plans and where their hideout is located!

Not all the believable in that Doc. Glass who's drunk every minute he's on the screen being able to preform a delicate and dangerous as well as successful, without anesthetic, operation on the near dead Dinkie and bring him back to health better then he ever was before he got shot. What also wasn't at all convincing is Terry who loved her gangster brother would fall and still be in love with Crane even after she find out that he's out to get Dinkie and put him behind bars or, in Dinkie knocking off Moose, even strapped into the state of Illinois electric chair!

***SPOILERS*** In the end it was Terry who lead the Feds, or FBI, straight to Dinkie by having him,in disguise, meet her at her job as as a cashier at the Place Ballroom to get some hard needed cash. With the place staked out by some 30 G-Men and Dinkie taking time to have a last dance with a hot looking blond, Vanda, Ann Borg that he met there it didn't take that long for the Boys in the FBI to get the drop on him.

***MAJOR SPOILER*** The ultra surgery Hollywood type ending spoiled the entire movie with Terry smooching with Crane after him breaking into her passenger train compartment just moments before she, outraged at him for setting up and having Dinkie gunned down, was going to have him thrown out of it!

You know something is up when the usually mild-mannered Robert Sterling comes out as if he is James Cagney. Thrown in jail, unknown to all, the "tough" Sterling is actually an FBI agent who has been placed there to get information on gang leader Dan Dailey.

The movie is a very good one due to the excellent plot twists. Donna Reed shows up and Sterling takes a liking to her. Go know that she is the sister of Dailey. Her efforts to reform him have failed throughout their lives.

In the scenes that he appears, Charles Winninger is a standout as an alcoholic doctor who treats the gun shot wounds of the crooks.

This gangster film of 1941 has it all; an excellent story line with romance blossoming between Sterling and Reed. Sterling must do his duty, no matter what the cost.

The ending again proves that love conquers all.