Tonight's Movie: Without Honor (1932) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Last summer Kino Lorber released the excellent early '30s Western LAW AND ORDER (1932) in a restored version.

LAW AND ORDER stars Walter Huston and Harry Carey (Sr.) and was directed by Edward L. Cahn. My LAW AND ORDER review may be read here. In a nutshell, it's an excellent movie in a fine print, and the disc includes interesting extras.

I wanted to circle back to this disc, as one of the extras included on the Blu-ray was another Harry Carey film released the same year, WITHOUT HONOR.

I'll insert a quick side explanatory note here that many of the film's posters have an incorrect title, WITHOUT HONORS.

WITHOUT HONOR is a 66-minute film written by Harry L. Fraser from a story by Lee Sage; it was directed by William Nigh and filmed by Edward Linden.

The story concerns gambler Pete Marlan (Carey), who finds himself on the side of law and order when his younger brother Jack (Lee Sage), a Texas Ranger, is killed. (It's of note that Sage also wrote the story, as mentioned above.)

Along the way there's also a LORNA DOONE type story about a baby taken from her mother who's now a young woman, Bernice (Mary Jane Irving), raised by a cruel badman (Gibson Gowland).

Bernice is actually the long-missing daughter of a saloon employee (Mae Busch) who's been helpful to Pete.

I'll say at the outset this is one of the "creakier" early '30s Westerns I've seen, with some pretty awkward acting and line deliveries.

That said, I really enjoyed it! As my friend Toby Roan -- who recorded the film's commentary -- said in a comment at his site, "It's a cool, creaky old cowboy movie." Exactly right.

There was something rather appealing to me about the film's roughness and stilted acting; it had a sort of authenticity I liked. It almost gives the feeling that one is standing next to the camera peering directly at early sound Western filmmaking.

That authentic feel was aided by some excellent, unfamiliar exterior locations; IMDb says it was shot around Kernville in Northern California.

Carey is always interesting, lazily casual one moment and jumping into action the next. The film may not boast high-level acting from the rest of the cast, but at the same time it's never dull; some of the creative touches include a dog used for smuggling!

At just a little over an hour, the story moves quickly and maintains viewer interest.

The print is far rougher than LAW AND ORDER, with lines running up and down the picture at various points, but it doesn't have any distracting dialogue jumps or more serious problems and is entirely watchable. The soundtrack is fine.

This is the kind of film I'm delighted to have included as an extra, just to be able to see it.

This set is highly recommended.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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