KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

blanche-2 "The Finger Points," from 1931, is an early Clark Gable film. In fact, that's why I earmarked it for my DV-R.There are very, very few actors from the early Hollywood years I don't like. I can probably count them on one hand. Richard Barthelmess is at the top. I'm being honest, I can't understand his appeal, I can't understand how anyone thinks he can act, I don't know how he decided to go into acting as a career.So I go into this with a prejudice. The story concerns a young reporter named Breckenridge Lee (Barthelmess) who comes highly recommended from Savannah and gets a job on The Press in a big city. Since there are so many gangsters around, it's probably Chicago.As a crusading reporter, Breck doesn't know how far to go, so he goes pretty far in upsetting the gangster population - and he is beaten for it. Loaded down with huge medical bills, such as $12 for anesthesia, that the paper refuses to pay, Breck decides to move over to the dark side. He takes money from the crime lord's payroll to keep stories from being reported, and the money is doled out by one Blanco (Gable). Breck becomes greedy and ups his price to the criminals.A woman interested in him at the paper (Fay Wray) becomes disillusioned when she realizes that Breck has a lot of money he definitely didn't earn at the paper. Other than Barthelmess, the acting is lively from Regis Toomey as another reporter on the paper, the lovely Wray, Robert Elliot as the city editor, and especially Clark Gable as Blanco. As was the style in those days, some of the acting is a little overdone by today's standards.Dimpled and virile, Gable does a great job as a tough guy. He could always play a good meanie, though he was cast less and less that way as his star ascended.The film seemed overly long at 1:25 - I attribute that to poor directing. This type of film needs to move.

audiemurph I know that Richard Barthelmess is not everyone's cup of tea, when it comes to sound pictures. Yes, his pace is always slower than that of the actors around him. When in dialogue with other characters, he always waits two full beats before speaking (watch for that, it's quite unique to him).But I like him a lot. In an era dominated by fast talkers, like the great James Cagney and E.G. Robinson, I frankly enjoy the change of pace. More than that, Barthelmess has an exceedingly pleasing gentle nature (again contrary to the more aggressive stars of the era), but best of all are those deep-set brooding eyes of his. He may be the best brooder in all of film history. And he does a lot of brooding in "The Finger Points".I wonder if Clark Gable, another fast-talker, felt agitated in his many dialogues with Barthelmess, having to always wait those extra few seconds to say his next line.A strong supporting cast make this a fun and quick little film. Note that Barthelmess's "Breck" is named after two Confederate heroes, Robert E. Lee and John Breckenridge; probably accidental was naming the managing editor of the newspaper "Wheeler" after another Confederate General, but of cavalry.Regis Toomey is particularly interesting as a man in love with Fay Wray, but who loses her to Barthelmess. It is pleasing to see his character stay true in friendship to them, rather than let bitterness control him. And it is ironic that he never finds out in the end the role he played in Barthelmess's death.Look out also for the many scenes in which the camera interestingly moves backward for a lengthy distance as the characters move towards the audience. Quite clever and interesting as well.

kitchent This is another film I had to see in my unhealthy quest to see all of the available Fay Wray films out there. However, this film surprised me, as it was a pretty good story. It also has a young Clark Gable as a gangster in a scene stealing role that demonstrates his star power very early in his career. The plot has been covered in other reviews, so I'll keep my review short.The pluses: Fay looks great, Clark Gable is good, and the story is solid and interesting.The minuses: Richard Barthelmess is fine, but being from the south, he shouldn't have even tried the accent.Overall a fine film and definitely worth a viewing.

howdymax It pays to watch a movie more than once. When I first saw "The Finger Points", I found it to be an enjoyable Warner Bros crime flick with few surprises. I just had the opportunity to see it again, and I found all kinds of interesting gimmicks.A young reporter, played by Richard Barthalmess, migrates from Savannah, to the big city to make his mark. He is picked up by a tabloid and charged with exposing the political/criminal junta that runs the town. He falls in love with his coworker, played by a yummy Fay Wray, and in his quest to hit the big time, gets his hands dirty. He throws in with the mob, eventually double crosses them for love, and gets his in the end.What is interesting about this movie, and what I never realized the first time I saw it, was that it was a tale ripped from the headlines of the day. After extorting money from the mob to bury the corruption, he is finally introduced to "Number One". We don't get to see his face, but he obviously represents Al Capone. The biggest scam of them all involves the mob moving in and taking over an entire city. They transform it into a mecca for gambling, bootleg liquor, speakeasies, and all manner of corruption. In the movie they call it Waverly, but it describes Capone's takeover of Cicero perfectly. Finally, the corrupt reporter with mob connections is gunned down in the street. I finally made the connection to a real life incident involving a reporter in Chicago named Jake Lingle. They even had a funeral procession down the main boulevard just as they did for Jake.These details may not mean much to everybody, but they make for a realistic story that, left to the hack writers imagination, would probably not be nearly as good. The dialog is kind of stilted, and the likable Richard Barthalmess' performance is predictably wooden, but nothing is perfect. If you're a crime buff, this is a winner.Note: In 1931, Clark Gable was just getting a toe hold in the business. In this movie he gets 4th billing as a gangster henchman.