Raffles (1930)

A. J. Raffles, "the amateur cracksman," was a fictional English gentleman safecracker invented by E. W. Hornung in a series of stories beginning in 1898 as a sort of mirror image of Sherlock Holmes. Like Holmes, Raffles is a suave, upper-class intellectual involved with the underworld, but Raffles's involvement is on the wrong side of the law: he supports his upper-class lifestyle by his career as a jewellry thief.The Raffles stories were extremely popular and have been the subject of many film, theater, and television treatments. One of the best of these is this 1930, very early talkie starring cinema's quintessential English gentleman, Ronald Coleman. It's really quite a good film for its time, with an intelligent script, generally good acting (especially by Coleman and character actor Frederick Kerr, better known as Baron Frankenstein in James Whale's famous 1931 treatment of the monster story, who steals every scene he is in as a grouchy English lord.) Co-cinematographer Gregg Toland, who later worked on many Hollywood classics, is presumably responsible for the film's noirish, atmospheric lighting effects.All in all, I'd say this entertaining film will still be enjoyed by today's audiences, and is a must see for fans of Coleman.

RAFFLES is another version of the E.W. Hornung novel about a famous jewel thief who gets caught up in a scheme to help out an old debt-afflicted friend as well as falling in love and vowing to give up his life of crime. It stars man-of-the-moment Ronald Colman in a likable performance as the titular character, in fact more charismatic than David Niven was in the 1939 remake of this movie.The main problem I have with RAFFLES is how dated it feels to the modern viewer. Made as an early talkie, it lacks a musical soundtrack and suffers from quite poor sound quality too. This slows the production down quite considerably at times and occasionally makes the acting feel stilted; it doesn't help that this was still of an era when the actors would project themselves to deliver larger-than-life performances, in other words 'playing to the back row'. Still, this film isn't all bad, and there are some good twists and turns along the way, but I never quite bought the antagonist/protagonist duality of the main character.

RAFFLES is a story filmed many times, with probably the most well-known version being the one Samuel Goldwyn made in 1939 starring David Niven and Olivia de Havilland in the main roles with Dame May Witty as Lady Melrose whose jewels are the centerpiece of the plot.That version managed to be barely above routine and this earlier take on the tale is even less impressive. Whatever merit the story has, it depends entirely on the presence of RONALD COLMAN to make the film bearable enough to watch. KAY FRANCIS is no help in a thankless co-starring role that makes little sense.The man who so successfully eludes capture by Scotland Yard is hereby confined to a routine and dull story treatment that does little to bolster the reputation of anyone connected with it. How he escapes and manages to fool the detectives hot on his trail is totally unconvincing, especially in the film's final scene where he plays a little trick on his pursuers and has time to pen a note for the Scotland Yard detective to read.Too dull, with no urgency in the story's pacing. Not recommended.

A good yarn to yawn all over and eventually to fall asleep. Fortunately, it's an hour and 10 minutes so you can get over it quite rapidly.This is certainly not a far, far better thing that Ronald Colman has done. Co-star Kay Francis looks like she is ready to burst out in tears any moment for just being involved in this very dull period piece of a suave, debonair gentleman who is a thief but tries to go straight for the woman he loves.When he is forced to go astray to help a friend who has passed a bad check, all begins to unravel for Colman. Unfortunately, the unraveling of the film takes place way too early amid the London fog.