World Gone Mad, The; Public Be Damned

2743. THE WORLD GONE MAD (Public Be Damned) (1933-USA). With PAT O’BRIEN, EVELYN BRENT, NEIL HAMILTON, MARY BRIAN, LOUIS CALHERN, J. CARROL NAISH. Grover Cromwell is the president of the Cromwell Investment Corporation. He also is an honest man who for decades has been investing the life savings of his clients. He is unaware that two of his subordinates have concocted an illegal scheme from which they will walk away with $9 million. Intrepid district attorney, Avery Henderson, is set to receive some key testimony from Harley Kemp, a government inspector who was paid to misrepresent statements related to the chicanery. One evening, Henderson receives a phone call from a woman who calls herself Nina Lamont. Nina tells Henderson that she is Harley Kemp’s sweetheart. She tells the District Attorney that she has “evidence which proves there are others involved besides Harley. I’ll give it to you if you’ll just give him a chance.” Henderson goes off to meet Nina. It is a fateful trip, from which he is destined never to return. Minutes after entering her living quarters, Henderson is shot dead. The fact is that Henderson was deeply devoted to his wife and son, but the murder scene is made to appear as if he had been drinking heavily and in a love nest. What follows is a richly complex scenario involving a pair of the late District Attorney’s pals. The first is Andy Terrell (a character who fits Pat O’Brien, the actor who plays him, like a glove). Terrell just may be the quintessential hard-living and fast-talking 1930s celluloid reporter. The second is Lionel Houston, who is Henderson’s replacement as District Attorney, and who just so happens to be engaged to Grover Cromwell’s daughter. Terrell and Houston become enmeshed in a whirlwind plot involving further violence and duplicity, resulting in a spirited and slam-bang crime drama. 74 minutes. Crime Mystery Suspense