Watch The World Gone Mad For Free

Overrated

Just perfect...

Awesome Movie

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Before signing with Warner Brothers and after getting his big break with his screen debut in The Front Page, Pat O'Brien appeared in a variety of films of varying quality for different studios. This one is for poverty row Majestic Pictures and for a poverty row film it boasts an impressive cast. But I can safely say that everyone here has done better work in their career. Mind you this is a cast that includes Evelyn Brent, Mary Brian, Neil Hamilton, Louis Calhern and J. Carrol Naish.District Attorney Wallis Clark who is investigating a crooked stock scheme is set up in a love nest by Evelyn Brent and murdered by trigger man Naish. O'Brien is a crime reporter with all kinds of friends in low places and Hamilton is Clark's upright assistant who succeeds him. But both had a high regard for Clark and both want justice for his daughter Mary Brian and both kind of like her.Turns out some of O'Brien's low place friends are indeed responsible. But they work for some blue chip Wall Street crooks. In 1933 blue chip Wall Street crooks were very popular villains.The World Gone Mad should have been a better film. Except for the end which has a great climax where the blue chip crooks get their's, this is a sluggish film. Again at a major studio this would have been a better film.

Although this movie was made by a so-called Poverty Row studio', Majestic Pictures, it stars Pat O'Brien, Neil Hamilton, J. Carrol Naish and Louis Calhern. How this small production company got the services of these screen veterans is anyone's guess, though all of the actors had either seen better days (with Hamilton and Calhern being big stars a few years earlier) or would go on to much bigger stardom (O'Brien). Because of these actors, the film didn't look like a low=budget production but where it really shows is the script--which was pretty dull and convoluted. "The World Gone Mad" features one of the most annoying child actors in history, with a cloying and whiny performance by the little brat. IMDb doesn't seem to list the 'actor' playing this role--I just hope never to see the kid again in other films. Every moment he was on camera (which were fortunately few), he whined. This also contributed to me giving the film such a low score.So what IS worth seeing about the film? Well, if you really, really want to hear lots and lots of cursing, this $@*! film has more than can recall having seen in any other Pre-code film. I call it 'Pre-code' because the newer and tougher Production Code of 1934 would eliminate cursing and many other raunchy things that were actually pretty common in Hollywood films of the era. In addition to the cursing, liberal doses of sexual innuendo are included. Yes, it is a novelty today to hear this from the stars of old...but a novelty you can enjoy in many better films of the early 1930s.

Decidedly precode film concerns the manipulation of stock by the members of the board of directors of a large company. When the DA gets the good on them they resort to murder. Its up to an assistant DA played by Neil Hamilton and a reporter played by Pat O'Brien to avenge the death of their friend which was made to look like a crime of passion. Clearly somethings never change and in these times of bank failures, market manipulation, and general corporate bad behavior this film seems as fresh as if it was made yesterday. Certainly its not as telling as a modern retelling might have been, but at the same time this is powerful stuff with everyone, almost everyone out to make money no matter what the cost. Well acted this is a shining little tale that is ripe for rediscovery, partly because it shows that the bad guys in the boardrooms have always been jerks, but also because its a good little thriller. Worth a look.

Apart from some occasionally stiff acting by the leads, plus the usual enthusiastic reporter portrayal, this time by Pat O'Brien, this is a pretty terse and believable tale of Your Wrongs Will Eventually Find You Out. The overall technology was poor of course, but ignorable. Some cogent scripting was going off here, much too detailed to go into - take my word for it! However, Neil Hamilton as the D.A. says that if he could he would line up against a wall all crooked businessmen and shoot them ... if caught a fair trial was obviously guaranteed then.Best bit: The two minute scene in the dark where Pat O'Brien and Evelyn Brent are lying on a bed both pretending to be drunk and playful for their own reasons. Your mind can run riot listening to them goofing around as shadows!Out of dozens of similar early 30's films in this vein I've seen, TWGM must come near the top.