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.

rickrudge The Finger Points (1931)Although Clark Gable is in this movie, he's not the star of it, although he steals every scene that he's in. Fay Wray is so hot in this movie, that it's worth you watching this film just to see how beautiful some 1930's actresses were. This is a morality tale and gangster movie. Lee Breckenridge (Richard Barthelmess) is a naive southern boy trying to get a job at a northern, big city newspaper. There he meets fellow reporters Charlie 'Breezy' Russell (Regis Toomey) and Marcia Collins (Fay Wray).His first assignment is to check out the opening of an exclusive club that is believed to be a gambling joint. There he meets Louis J. Blanco (Gable) and the club owner. His story breaks and the cops bust the club on the opening night. All of a sudden Lee is higher up in the paper, but he manages to get beat-up by some thugs and put in the hospital. Naturally the paper doesn't feel the need to help Lee out with his hospital bills, forcing him to be more creative in how he writes his stories in the future.He joins forces with Louis, basically extorting gangsters wanting to get a speak-easy or gambling joint started in their town. Lee is able to break a story about the ones that don't pay up, making him successful and richer. Marcia, who has found out that he's socking away pay-offs, doesn't like what Lee has become. Can Lee get out of this without getting killed, change his ways, and marry Marcia? Well, you know that crime doesn't pay. :-)

kidboots Contrary to what a lot of people say I think Richard Barthelemess's career was really boosted by the talkies - he was a real success story!! He had an inner spiritual quality noticed by D.W. Griffith and exploited in films like "Broken Blossoms" and "Tol'able David" and he gave beautiful performances. Even though, in "Weary River", an early talkie, he played a singing convict, it proved he could talk and his old sensitivity shone through. An added aloofness made him right at home as soldiers who come home from the war cynical and battered, all at sea in a world that has left them behind ("The Last Flight" (1931) and "Heroes For Sale" (1933)) and as a country hick who takes on the plantation owners ("The Cabin in the Cotton" (1932)). His popularity lasted for at least a few years and he was No. 6 in the popularity polls in 1931. "The Finger Points" is based on the career of Jake Lingle, a "leg man" - someone employed by a newspaper who goes from place to place looking for crime stories. He was initially hailed as a hero, after his death in 1931, but it was later revealed he was involved in racketeering with Al Capone. Talk about a movie "plucked from today's headlines"!!!Breckenridge Lee (Barthelemess) is an eager reporter from Savannah with a letter of recommendation to "The Press", the most prestigious newspaper in the city. At first he is pretty wet behind the ears but with the help of Marcia (could Fay Wray look any more beautiful) and Breezy (the always dependable Regis Toomey) he manages to get through without making too big a dill of himself. When "The Press" declares war on crime Lee becomes a crusader and is given an assignment to investigate "The Sphinx Club", a gambling house that is a front for the mob. Lee approaches it with gusto but Marcia and Breezy are horrified that such a "baby" should be given such a dangerous assignment as his first story.Unlike the other reporters who treat the crusading as a joke his zealousness gets "The Sphinx Club" raided and sees him beaten up by two thugs. He has already been offered a bribe by Haines' offsider Louie (Clark Gable) and of course he refuses, but when his medical bills come in and the paper refuses to help out it looks as though he will turn traitor!!! 1931 was an astonishing year for Clark Gable - he appeared in 12 features, from a basic walk on as Anita Page's righteous husband in "The Easiest Way" to the rough gangster who got to shove Norma Shearer around in "A Free Soul". As Photoplay commented at the time - "He's everybody's big moment"!! "The Finger Points" was definitely a high point for him!!Lee soon has the gangsters running scared with his threats of exposing them unless they do things his way. The "No. 1" - a faceless gangster, seen only from the back has given Lee $100,000 to keep his newest gambling house "The Waverley" out of the newspapers but - you guessed it, Breezy, who has been given a pep talk by Marcia about working hard and trying to amount to someone, has heard a rumor and is eager to expose "The Waverley" and all it's crookedness on the front page!!The movie ends on an ambiguous note - the nation mourns Lee as a martyr and Breezy gives one of those sentimental speeches about what a square guy Lee was and how he wouldn't be on the take etc, however, the gangsters think they know better, as Louie spits in disgust "A Martyr"!!! Even though Marcia doesn't want to have anything to do with him, once Lee gives her the old "I'm not working with them - I'm trying to expose them" speech she is quite happy to forgive and forget and doesn't insist he gives all his ill gotten gains to the local orphanage!!!

sideways8 I love movies which give you a sense of what it was like to be living & working in the time. (It's the sociologist in me. ) This movie is one of these. The plot is very interesting and the acting is first rate all round. Fay Wray is very good, but Richard Barthelmess steals the show and not just in the "silent" parts. Never seen him better.