Way Back Home 1931

This has the look of a silent film to the production, and with a decent story and a solid effort from Phillips Lord, is actually quite watchable. He adopts the young "Robbie" (Frankie Darro) after his brute of a father goes AWOL. Together with his wife (Effie Palmer), they soon come to love the lad, but a neighbourly dispute prompts the return of "Rufe" (Stanley Fields) to reclaim his son - despite the protestations of just about everyone else? Meantime, the young man's friend "Mary Lucy" (Bette Davis) is having family troubles of her own as her father will not let her see her beau "David" (Frank Albertson). Can they navigate the difficulties ahead find happiness? Davis (more especially, her big eyes) features quite sparingly; the film really belongs to an engaging performance from Lord as the decent family man determined to do what is right. The production is very basic. The camera work isn't helped by the editing (or is it the other way round?) but some work has gone into the characterisations and the dialogue is sparse enough to let the imagery do most the work - culminating in quite an entertaining buggy chase with some fisticuffs! No, it's not a film you are ever likely to rec