Invisible Stripes

“I need to get from rags to riches quick. You got any suggestions?” It’s a line that sums up so many film noir tales, including some of the earliest like Lloyd Bacon’s Invisible Stripes, which follows two convicts who, upon their release from prison on the same day, go in two very different directions. George Raft plays Cliff Taylor, who returns to his mother (Flora Robson) and attempts to find a job and rebuild a decent life for himself, while Humphrey Bogart, billed an incredible fourth, plays Chuck Martin, who immediately dives back into the criminal life. As Taylor runs into trouble finding and keeping jobs because of his record, he becomes desperate, which leads him back to his pal Martin, who hooks him up with his gang’s lawbreaking ventures much to the chagrin of gang member Lefty (Marc Lawrence) who suspects Taylor of disloyalty. A baby-faced William Holden plays Taylor’s younger brother Tim, contemptible of his own poverty and even more outraged than his brother about the way society treats ex-cons, who dreams of starting his own business to provide a more comfortable life for his fiancé Peggy (Jane Bryan), who, in a moving scene, is at one point mistaken by a top hat-donned man on the street as a common street vendor. One of the many distinctive, high-quality crime melodramas produced by Warner Brothers during this period (another one released the same year, You Can’t Get Away with Murder, even appears on a theater marquee in this film), Invisible Stripes is a near perfect blend of action and drama, story and character, and is required viewing for fans of early noir.