Thursday night’s astonishing vintage artifact recorded off TCM: DARK HAZARD (1934), starring Edward G. Robinson.
I am hornswoggled that this movie exists. Absolutely baffled. When the closing credits came up, I cried out, “What the f—?” And I am serious. The only possible explanation I can come up with is that it is one of those movie stories deformed by protectiveness toward the star, like finding out at the end of SCENT OF WOMAN that Al Pacino’s suicidal, destructive blowhard is beloved by children.
And first of all I’ve got to address that title. Knowing nothing else about the film, but aware of Edward G. Robinson, you have got to believe it to be some kind of proto-noir, a thriller where things end badly, right?
Dark Hazard is the name of a greyhound who the Robinson character, Jim “Buck” Taylor, falls in love with.
Honestly. DARK HAZARD is a movie about a broken man healed by the love of a dog.
About the last thing you would expect of this star and that title.
But first, we have Buck’s opening plight. He’s a gambler who’s lost everything and is now working at the stables at the racetrack. He looks for a place to live and finds a rooming house, whose owner is one of those sneering Margaret Hamilton types who lets him know she’s on to him at minute one. She hates people who even work at the racetrack, and is downright hateful to Buck, who really is nothing but kind and humble during the conversation. Honestly, cruel disapproval is her default.
As it happens, this harridan has a kinder daughter, who Buck marries, and before long they are living in a hotel where Buck is night clerk, and they are struggling even though their rent is included, and the guy who owns the hotel is a total pill who berates him at every opportunity. (Honestly, this movie is full of people berating the kindly Buck.) Buck no longer gambles, but he does read the racing forms for entertainment, and gives tips to one guest who makes quite a bit of money, following Buck’s information. This leads to a gangster contriving to get Buck fired and forcing him back into the business, which is really going all the way around Robin Hood’s barn for minimal purposes, because he doesn’t want Buck to gamble for him. He wants Buck to run his dog track out in California, even though Buck knows nothing about racing dogs and has shown no management skill.
You expect that gangster to turn on him, don’t you? No, after that early ribbing he’s never anything but nice to Buck.
Now living in California in a house where Buck likes to stand out front and water the bamboo, the pair is more prosperous, except that Buck’s wife is openly ashamed of him working at the race track and bitter about the occasional windfalls he brings home (as he inevitably drifts back into gambling, having streaks of good fortune that earn him sums that would be terrific today). At about this point Buck meets Dark Hazard, an up and coming dog, and if you have ever seen a human being melt with adoration of a dog, at first sight, that is Buck.
An old girlfriend from Buck’s old gambling days shows up. She is one of those old-movie wise-cracking broads, who we know is supposed to be a bad girl because she dresses more snappily than Buck’s saintly church-going wife. We know she’s up to no good because she’s openly astonished to find Buck living the straight life and because she’s wearing a fortune in jewelry in broad daylight Buck, of course, keeps a solid marital line of demarcation between himself and this old friend, and he is so open and above board above this old relationship that he invites the old girl along with a group of friends and work associates to take the wife out to a fancy dinner, but she, of course, sees through the bimbo immediately, weeping that her husband should even know such a woman. She, in fact, packs up and leaves.
You expect Buck to find out that the old girlfriend is in the employ of his crooked boss and that she’s betraying him cruelly? No, that never happens.
Buck eventually ends up on the skids and after two years on the road, ends up back in middle America, living in the same rooming house with his wife and their baby boy, as they head toward divorce; and though she decides to give him another chance, the wife continues to let him know that he’s a problem that must be handled, and her mother continues to let him know that he’s no good. It’s a grim life.
By this point, I had taken to telling Judi that I really, really, hated the wife character. She’s a total pill. She seems to be the one we should be rooting for, but god is she a pill. She is always moralizing at him, always rude to his friends, always throwing tantrums, not when he loses, but when he wins; always seizing the opportunity to lord it over him when he’s down.
It’s at about this point that the dog, Dark Hazard, has a career-ending injury and seems headed for euthanasia, which horrifies Buck. He buys the dog. This, of course, horrifies his wife and mother in law, who won’t have that “filthy thing” in the house. Buck builds him a doghouse, massages the dog’s broken leg, does everything he can to rehabilitate him, all while radiating love and delight in the dog, cooing encouragement and so on. (It’s some of the most endearing acting of Robinson’s distinguished career.) This goes on until Buck finds out that his wife has decided to further that divorce and marry the other guy, at which point he takes the dog and hits the road, thumbing rides. We see him feeding the dog all the meat from his only sandwich just before hopping into a car for parts unknown.
So, aside from ACKNOWLEDGING that the sweet wife was always a pill and that the movie knows it, where does this film then go?
Well, another two year gap. Back at the dog racing track. Dark Hazard, who has made such a spectacular recovery he’s a BETTER runner than he was before breaking his leg, has won another race. (Never mind that he must be at least five by now and very old for a racing greyhound, who usually retire at three.) A flush, well-respected Buck emerges from a back room, with a six-figure fortune from his latest triumph at cards. The old girlfriend, now his wife, still festooned with jewels in broad daylight, shows up, pets the dog, takes most of Buck’s winnings to make sure they don’t get blown immediately, and they head off happily.
What the fuck?
That DOESN’T HAPPEN in movies of this vintage!
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