A Man Betrayed (1941 film) : Plot, Cast, Reception, Bibliography Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Man Betrayed (1941 film)

1941 film

March 7, 1941 (1941-03-07) (Los Angeles)
March 26, 1941 (1941-03-26) (New York)

^[1]^[2]

Running time

82 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

A Man Betrayed is a 1941 American dramatic comedy film directed by John H. Auer and starring John Wayne, Frances Dee and Edward Ellis.^[3] It was produced and distributed by Republic Pictures. In the United Kingdom, the film was released as Citadel of Crime.

Plot

Bucolic lawyer Lynn Hollister fights big-city corruption when he tries to prove that politician Tom Cameron is a crook. Hollister is in love with the politician's daughter Sabra.^[4]

Cast

John Wayne as Lynn Hollister
Frances Dee as Sabra Cameron
Edward Ellis as Boss Thomas "Tom" Cameron
Wallace Ford as Casey ("Globe" newspaper reporter)
Ward Bond as Floyd, Amato's goon
Harold Huber as Morris "Morrie" Slade
Alexander Granach as T. Amato, Club Inferno Manager
Barnett Parker as George, the Camerons' Butler
Edwin Stanley as the Prosecutor
Harry Hayden as lawyer Don Langworthy
Tim Ryan as Mr. Wilson, insurance agent
Russell Hicks as District Attorney C. R. Pringle
Pierre Watkin as the Governor
Ferris Taylor as Mayor Al

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Thomas M. Pryor wrote: "With more action and less talk, 'A Man Betrayed' might have amounted to something better than just a torpid expose of a political boss. For the new film ... reveals nothing new about the workings of machine politics, nor does it afford any suspense as to what will ultimately happen ... The plot is talked away in the first fifteen minutes and, except for a lively election-day skirmish between rival mobsters and graveyard voters, there just isn't anything to arrest one's attention."^[2]

The Los Angeles Times reviewer wrote: "As though embossed, a character occasionally stands out on the screen from among the welter of rubber-stamp types. John Wayne manages such a characterization in 'A Man Betrayed.' ... The story is engrossing particularly from this characterization ... Otherwise the yarn is one of those murder things with crooks in high and low places, and the hero bent on a whodunit mission to the big city."^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b "Wayne Acts 'Man Betrayed'". Los Angeles Times. March 8, 1941. p. 9.
^ ^a ^b Pryor, Thomas M. (March 27, 1941). "The Screen in Review". The New York Times. p. 29.
^ Hal Erickson (2015). "A Man Betrayed". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 19, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
^ Hal Erickson. "A Man Betrayed (1941) - John H. Auer - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved January 12, 2016.