Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

dougdoepke The storyline weaves a number of threads into a pretty good Warner Bros. gangster film. Chuck (Bogart) and Cliff (Raft) are parolees released back into Depression Era New York. Chuck returns to crime arguing that's the only realistic option for an ex-con. Cliff, however, wants to go straight, but has trouble getting a job as a parolee. Just as bad for Cliff, his younger brother Tim (Holden) feels less than a man because his future as a lower-class youth looks dim for him and his intended wife (Bryan). Meanwhile, Cliff's trying to steer his brother away from a life of crime, but can he since the odds seem long.Bogart steals the film as a totally convincing gangster; on other hand, Raft's basically a good guy, which doesn't play to the actor's real strength as a laconic tough guy. Still, Ciff's relationship with Chuck proves surprisingly touching. To me, Holden's a weak spot, his various little tizzies none to convincing. Then too, whoever did Robson's make-up as the aging mother spread on the pancake with a trowel—good thing she compensates with a fine performance. And catch ace bad guys Marc Lawrence and Paul Kelly adding grit to the robbery gang. Anyway, it's a slam-bang climax ending on a hopeful note for distressed audiences of 1939. And that's along with a worthy sub-text, namely that parolees do deserve a second chance.

revtg1-2 Starts out interesting. Prison scenes are real enough. George Raft carries the "nice guy who just made a mistake" to the point that he appears soft. Then William Holden chews up too much scenery with his angry young man act. Then Raft gets a martyr complex and throws himself in front of the gang's guns to save his kid brother. Marc Lawrence, stereo-typed as a meanie and low life hood, turns in his usual good role. He had to go to Europe in the 50s to be taken seriously as an actor. Paul Kelly's talent is wasted but he does his usual solid performance. The director, Lloyd Bacon, wasted a good cast. Just before he died William Holden told this story about George Raft during an appearance on the Tonight Show shortly after Raft died. Holden was brand new to Hollywood and a little nervous and insecure. Lloyd Bacon was an egomanic and a bully. One day on the set Bacon went berserk and began berating Holden, shouting in his face in front of the cast. Raft ran over and got him by the lapels and said, "That's a man you are talking to, not a dog. If you ever talk to that young man like that again you'll answer to me. You got that?" Bacon became a little more polite. But not a better director.

MartinHafer The main theme through most of the film was excellent. George Raft is being released from prison on parole. He honestly wants to succeed and does his best to stay clean, but has a hard time getting a fair shake on the outside. He's got a devil of a time getting a job and the system seems out to put a lot of roadblocks in his way. This social justice theme is good and provokes a lot of thought,...then it all gets lost as the plot takes a crazy turn that tends to undo so much of the original message. In so ways, it looked like two different films melded together! At about one hour into the film, Raft is taken in by the police for questioning about a robbery. He was innocent and ultimately is exonerated and at the same time he's just completed his one year of parole. However, now that his life is falling into place, he goes back to a life of crime!!! Yes, the film tried to show that he was doing this to help his struggling brother, but it still made no sense. After all, throughout the film, he stood up for what was right and was a decent guy you couldn't help but like,...and then THAT?!?! It just wasn't at all convincing and helped to hopelessly muddle the message.This is a real good example of the actors being better than the material--and it's just too bad. While still a decent gangster film, it could have been a better gangster film with a real message--something that is just tossed aside for some inexplicable reason.

classicsoncall George Raft and an unrecognizably young William Holden are top billed as brothers Cliff and Tim Taylor in this 1939 gangster genre film that has both brothers skirting opposite sides of the law as they try to make a life for themselves.The story opens with Cliff Taylor and fellow Sing Sing inmate Chuck Martin (Humphrey Bogart) about to leave prison with their sentences completed. Taylor is determined to go straight, Martin can't wait to get back to his criminal life. As Cliff tries to settle back into his former life with his family, events conspire against him making it difficult to stay on the straight and narrow. Additional pressure comes from brother Tim, who wants to make a better life for himself and fiancée Peggy (Jane Bryan), but earning twenty dollars a week as a mechanic makes him fantasize about "taking what he wants".The film see-saws it's way back and forth for Cliff, who alternately tries to play it straight and then gets mixed up with Martin's gangster pals. In that regard, George Raft really gets to portray a con man, hiding his involvement from Tim and his mother (Flora Robson), until events spiral out of control during a botched robbery attempt by Martin's gang.If you're into film nuances, this one offers a number of treats. For starters, there's the scene where Bogey's character Martin is shown coming out of a movie theater with his blonde girlfriend Molly (Lee Patrick); the film that's playing - 1939's "You Can't Get Away With Murder", starring Humphrey Bogart! Speaking of Molly, she's almost a dead ringer look alike for Bette Davis, making me do a couple of double takes. And then there's the brief uncredited appearance of Dead Ender Leo Gorcey as the head stock boy for a general store where Cliff briefly finds a job.I found myself enjoying this film, even if uneven at times. George Raft and Humphrey Bogart went on to make one more film together in 1940's "They Drive By Night", where they share equal billing as brothers involved in wildcat trucking, one might call them brother truckers.For it's own part, "Invisible Stripes" may be hard to come by, not available as a studio release, but many of these Warner Brothers films find their way onto classic movie TV channels like TCM or are available through specialty video houses. This one would be well worth your time, especially if you're a fan of Raft, Bogey, Holden or the gangster genre itself.