Wordiezett So much average

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

MissSimonetta Jewel Robbery (1932) has a reputation as one of the most pre-code of the pre-code period. The heroine is an adrenaline-junkie socialite whose hobbies include jewelry-hunting and adultery. The romantic lead is a gentleman thief who prefers to incapacitate his victims with marijuana cigarettes rather than at the end of a gun. When the two meet, what results is a smoldering, witty onscreen romance that ends with crime paying big.Some might accuse the film of being very slight. At 66 minutes, it just barely put in a character arc for the Kay Francis character. However, this is a fun movie, one that does not try to be anything but pure confectionery-- and when the confectionery is as tasty as Jewel Robbery, only a grouch would complain!

jbacks3 Warner Brothers was bleeding some serious red ink in 1932. The public's once-insatiable talkie curiosity had worn off and the Depression had tightened it's stranglehold on America, causing ticket prices to drop below 1930-31 levels. Against this reality, the studio had actively pursued marginal Broadway plays it rightly thought could be had on the cheap and improved on; Ladislas Fordor's comedy "Ekszerrablás a Váci-uccában" (or "Jewel Robbery"), adapted for the stage by Bertram Bloch. The play had blown through the Booth Theatre after just 54 performances in front of half-filled seats. Purchased for a reported $10,000, the property came in at cost low enough to justify giving it an A-effort. Newly hired screenwriter Erwin S. Gelsey rewrote the play and recent German émigré William Dieterle was enlisted to direct. At this point Warner's was spending about $300,000 on it's A-efforts and was sandbagging it's huge losses (they would continue into 1936) from profits squirreled away from the salad days of 1928-31. Jewel Robbery did nothing to help it's 1932 bottom line. The film flopped miserably (critics cited Kay Francis' interpretation of a morally objectionable philandering Viennese trophy wife). The fact was, there wasn't much Depression era audiences could relate to. Warner's injection of sex and marijuana would doom any hope of eking out re-release profits after the 1934 Production Code kicked in and the property would remain virtually unseen until the inception of TCM. To contemporary audiences, Jewel Robbery is a pre-code hoot. To Jack L. Warner, it was an ulcer.

Michael_Elliott Jewel Robbery (1932)*** (out of 4) William Powell stars as a masterful jewel robber who uses not only his mind but also his charm when it comes time to pull a job. On his latest job he meets a victim (Kay Francis) and quickly becomes fixated on her but not half as much as the crush she grows on him. Soon the two are trying to come together even while the police are still looking for him. Powell remains a fairly popular star today due to many classic movies but this one here is usually forgotten about and never mentioned, which is a real shame because this is one of the better pre-code comedies out there. Not only do we have Powell being as charming as ever but we also get some very risky material, which certainly could only belong in a pre-code. For starters, we get Francis playing a bored wife, not girlfriend, who keeps trying to run off with another man. Secondly, during the robbery Powell wants to make his victims forget what they saw and go to sleep so he gives them "laughing cigarettes", which is naturally marijuana. There are several scenes where people are smoking on these joints, not knowing what they are, and then laughing with no idea of how dumb they look.. These scenes are extremely funny and at times downright hysterical considering the time frame that the movie was released. As funny as REEFER MADNESS is these scenes are even funnier. Powell is the main reason to watch this film because of his charm and wit, which are all over every scene. Francis wasn't as impressive but I think a lot of this is due to her character being rather annoying. The movie is very fast paced from start to finish and it never takes a break and these are just more reasons for catching this gem when it shows up on television.

tedg William Powell is responsible for a huge element of our loves, the smoothness that has comic irony behind it. He invented it. There are a few of his movies that are essential viewing, but those are after the government thugs decided what movies should be like in "moral" terms.So you only have a brief window between the time that talkies got going seriously and the code pummeled them into different channels than the world naturally wanted them to go.This is the best Powell from that window. Pot. Overt sex of the most promiscuous and opportunistic kind. An incredible garment. A very literal wink at the camera as the rich man's kept woman goes off on her jaunt for satisfaction and sexual adventure. The notion of theft as morally acceptable. Police as buffoons, albeit European police.Powell invented something important, but it relied on the notion of conspiracy. The most cinematic of conspiratorial devices are sexual cheats. The appearance of a speech defect in the sexy actress only endears and amplifies the effect.So without this small window, this period of rapid evolution, we wouldn't have the riches we have today.A fun movie. An important one, too.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.