Executscan Expected more

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

classicsoncall Well here's a John Wayne film you probably never heard of and it actually turned out fairly entertaining in my estimation. For old time movie fans there are a wealth of references to other pictures but you have to be paying attention. My summary quote was spoken by the picture's understated heavy Tom Cameron (Edward Ellis), and it immediately brought to mind the 1936 film "Bullets or Ballots" starring Edward G. Robinson with an assist from Humphrey Bogart. Cameron's right hand man, portrayed by Ward Bond, seemed to be modeled on Lon Chaney's Lennie character in "Of Mice and Men", another film preceding this one by a couple of years. I was a little baffled by that in as much as Cameron seemed to be running a pretty tight political machine and Floyd the Spider (Bond) seemed like a loose cannon most of the time.There was another cool scene right after Lynn Hollister's (Wayne) impromptu radio pitch for the Cameron political organization which he did with feigned sincerity. Outside the station, a waiting doorman proclaimed to Hollister and Sabra Cameron (Frances Dee) that "It was pretty good, but I still prefer Gene Autry". Autry was going great guns for Republic Pictures at the time, so it made a lot of sense for them to plug one of their main stars. Interestingly, while Wayne's character manhandled his female co-star by placing a checkered tablecloth over her head and popping her over his shoulder, Autry put a leading lady over his knee for a spanking in at least a couple of his Westerns.Another reason I can chalk up for enjoying this picture had to do with the place names. There really is a Spring Valley located about thirty miles north of New York City, that being Hollister's home town. Not far from Tarrytown actually, mentioned by Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront", a place he didn't like because the crickets made him nervous. Both locations today are a far cry from being small country towns, much like Newburgh, where the editor of The Globe was about ready to retire to and grow the biggest asters. Newburgh was actually named America's best small town in 1960, but you wouldn't know that today either.Played with about equal parts drama and light humor, I see the movie doesn't resonate a whole lot with other viewers here so I guess I'm a little outside the mainstream on this one. But like I say, it was some of the little things that kept me focused on the story besides the main idea of election tampering that eventually brought down the corrupt politicians with Hollister's help and Boss Cameron's sudden change of heart and mind.

MartinHafer This John Wayne film is rarely seen and I was surprised to see it being aired on a local TV channel. Since I've seen just above all of Wayne's AVAILABLE films, I was excited to see this film. While it wasn't bad, it also was underwhelming since, at heart, it was just a cheap B- movie made just before John Wayne became a super-star.When the film begins, a man is murdered. However, it's all quickly chalked up to suicide and it's all swept under the rug. What they didn't anticipate was that the dead guy had a bull-headed friend, Lynn (John Wayne) and he was intent on getting to the bottom of things. At first, the local political boss is able to make Wayne believe that there was no conspiracy and the man died of natural causes. Besides, the man's daughter, Sabra (Frances Dee) was cute and Lynn was obviously very taken with her. But, over time, Lynn starts to realize that there is more than meets the eye to all this...the local 'Progressive Party' is anything but! What's next? See the film.This film is pretty much like most Bs--hastily written, full of plot problems and yet is entertaining. It's also featuring John Wayne as a caveman, of sorts--the sort of role folks liked back in the 40s but which will annoy many viewers with today's sensibilities. A film mostly for big-time Wayne fans and that's all--especially with the really, really dumb ending where the ultra-bad guy suddenly changes his spots!

JohnHowardReid This movie starts off quite excitingly with arresting camera movement, atmospheric photography, intriguing situations, odd characters and elliptical dialogue. Mind you, the dialogue doesn't always work. The attempts to be flippant and yet at the same time stress an underlying menace and tension, don't always work, but it's a game attempt to do something a bit out of the ordinary. One of the chief problems lies in the acting: Edward Ellis and Harold Huber are magnificent but the stooges provided for them cannot come up to their level. This is particularly true of Joseph Crehan who is most unconvincing as a corrupt newspaper editor. The way Crehan plays him makes you wonder how an idiot like that could land a job running a hot dog stall, let alone a newspaper. Due to the dictates of budget and speed, director John H. Auer is forced to work with second-rate character actors unwilling or unable to bring out the depths in their lines. Admittedly, nothing could rescue the later stages of the movie when the script delivers a disappointing climax so that Wayne can get the girl. Still, Huber's death is arrestingly staged. Wayne plays with a light romantic charm that is reasonably appealing, despite the fact that it is often at odds with the atmosphere. If Wayne meant it as a contrast, his efforts don't quite come off. However, Miss Dee makes a fetching heroine, though Ward Bond seems a little out of character as the lunatic brother. All told, some good direction by Auer helps this often otherwise routine town-in-the-grip-of-the-crime-syndicate melodrama. U.K. release title: Citadel of Crime. Also known by its USA reissue title: Wheel of Fortune.

bkoganbing Lawyer John Wayne's friend, a high school basketball star from his town, is shot down and then run over by a car. The death is declared a suicide by the local coroner. Wayne goes to the big city to investigate.Wayne's directed to see Edward Ellis who is the local political boss and of course the Duke falls big time for Ellis's daughter Frances Dee. Never mind he's got a job to do, even if it costs him Dee.This was John Wayne's one and only attempt at playing a crusader type, a scaled down version of Jefferson Smith. Ellis is a combination of the characters played by Edward Arnold and Claude Rains in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Dee combines both Jean Arthur and Astrid Allwyn. I'd say the results were mixed. Perhaps with a better script at a larger studio with more production values, Wayne might have done more with the part.As it is there are some nice John Wayne style fight scenes in A Man Betrayed, a couple with Ward Bond, and a king sized brawl outside a polling place where Ellis is bringing in repeaters from his sponsored soup kitchens. Machine politics, American style. Hopefully none of those countries where we're crusading for democracy ever sees this film.Ward Bond plays the moronic brother of Alexander Granach, owner of the red light district club where Wayne's friend was killed in. His performance while good, was a carbon copy of Lon Chaney, Jr.'s from Of Mice and Men. I expected him to ask Granach about the bunny rabbits any minute.At this phase of Wayne's career, Republic was casting him in a variety of parts to broaden his casting potential in the wake of his success with Stagecoach. Herbert J. Yates of Republic films was making almost as much money loaning Wayne out as in his own films and he was trying to make him more marketable. He didn't succeed with A Man Betrayed, but it wasn't the Duke's fault by any means.