Best Man Wins (Columbia Pictures, 1935)

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The tale of two ex-friends in love with the same girl and on opposite sides of the law featured Bela Lugosi as a jewel smuggler. Lugosi alsoy appeared with Edmund Lowe in The Silent Command (1923), Women of All Nations (1931), Chandu the Magician (1932) and Gift of Gab (1934). Director Erle C. Kenton had previously directed Lugosi in Island of Lost Souls (1932).

Production Company: Columbia Pictures

Director: Erle C. Kenton

Assistant Director: C.C. Coleman, Jr.

Assistant Director (Underwater Sequences): Roy Davidson

Screenplay: Ethel Hill and Bruce Manning

Original Story: Mud Turtle by Ben G. Kohn

Cinematography: John Stumar

Director of Photography (Underwater Sequences): Joseph Walker

Sound Engineer: Paul Neal

Music: Howard Jackson

Editor: Otto Meyer

Stunts: Harry Finnegan

Edmund Lowe’s Stand-in: Chet Bartosch

Frank Haney’s Stand-in: Jack Holt

Florence Rice’s Stand-in: Evelyn Mackert

Running Time: 65 minutes

Copyright Number: LP5240, January 7 1935

Cast:

Edmund Lowe: Toby Warren

Jack Holt: Nick Roberts

Bela Lugosi: Dr. Boehm

Florence Rice: Ann Barry

Forrester Harvey: Harry

J. Farrell MacDonald: Captain of the harbor patrol

Robert Allen: Harbor patrolman

A.S. ‘Pop’ Byron: Irish policeman

Oscar Apfel: Chief of Police

Ed Brady: Tender

Bill Dee: Detective

Roy Brent: Sailor

Earle D. Bunn: Sailor

Monte Carter: Sailor

Jack Kascier: Sailor

Herman Marks: Sailor

Bud Fine: Sailor

Art Miles: Sailor

Buddy Sullivan: Sailor

Danny Sullivan: Sailor

Eddy Chandler: Eddie

Nick Copeland: Dance hall proprietor

Gordon De Main: Salvage boss

Sam Flint: Doctor

Otto Fries: Policeman

A.R. Haysel: Policeman

Adda Gleason: Head Nurse

Grace Goodall: Supervisor of nurses

Frank Hagney: Bouncer

Harry Holman: Uncle Ed

Esther Howard: Mamie

William Irving: Bartender

Selmer Jackson: O’Neill

Lee Kohlmar: Old German student

Mitchell Lewis: Joe Martini

Bert Lindley: Shakespearean actor

Charles Marsh: Intern

Bradley Page: Silk

Frank Sheridan: Captain of the salvage tug

Emma Tansy: Old lady

Mike Tellegen: Sailor

Harry Tenbrook: Sailor

Harry Wilson: Sailor

William A. Williams: Tender

Frank Yaconelli: Waiter

Bradley Page

Mitchell Lewis

Esther Howard

Selmer Jackson

Frank Sheridan

Charles Brinley

Frank Benson

Sammy Blum

Billy Engle

Irma Harrison

Ben Hendricks, Jr.

John Irwin

Bert Starkey

The New York Times, January 2, 1935

THE SCREEN

Forty Fathoms Down

By ANDRE SENNWALD

The first of the 1935 photoplays is content to leave the he-man situation about where it stood in 1910. A minor dramatization of the qualities that accompany hair-on-the-chest “Best Man Wins” is a tale of submarine violence which unfolds amid the bubblings of the air lines and the fitful gleam of the acetylene torches. When Edmund Lowe and Jack Holt were salvage divers, their friendship was a beautiful thing. Then Mr. Lowe lost his arm saving Mr. Holt’s life and Mr. Holt became a copper. Resentful of sympathy, Mr. Lowe sank out of sight and joined the breadline brigade. Unable to find work, he finally became a diver for Bela Lugosi, a cunning jewel thief. In the line of duty, Sergeant Holt came upon his old friend forty fathoms down and regretfully tried to bring him to the surface. Thereupon Mr. Lowe, knowing that he faced a prison cell and not wanting to bring disgrace upon his innocent fiancée, cut the air lines and perished in the deep.

The new film crowns its muscular endeavors with a Grand Guignol episode in which the camera studies the suffering phiz of Mr. Lowe as he expires in his diving suit. The under-water scenes are managed with the customary skill of the Hollywood technicians. Although the Messrs. Lowe and Holt are two of our most engaging exponents of the iron-jaw drama, they have so little assistance from the authors of their work that they are seldom able to affect your blood pressure. Say this for “Best Man Wins,” that it allows the cinema a generous margin for improving its shining hours during the new twelvemonth. Forty Fathoms Down. BEST SCAN WINS, based on a story by Ben G. Kohn and adapted by Ethel Hill and Bruce Manning; directed by Erle Kenton and produced by Columbia. At the Rialto. Toby . . . . . Edmund Lowe Nick . . . . . Jack Holt Dr. Boehn . . . . . Bela Lugosi Ann . . . . . Florence Rice Harry . . . . . Forrester Harvey Captain . . . . . J. Farrell MacDonald

The Evening Independent, January 19, 1935

Berkeley Gazette, March 2, 1935

Berkeley Gazette, March 4, 1935

The Sydney Morning Herald, March 11, 1935

San Jose News, March 26, 1935

Spokane Daily Chronicle, April 5, 1935

The Miami News, May 12, 1935

The Miami News, May 13, 1935

Spartanburg Herald, May 25, 1935

Photoplay Magazine, July, 1935

BRIEF REVIEWS OF CURRENT PICTURES

BEST MAN WINS, THE – Columbia – An interesting film with Jack Holt, Edmund Lowe and Florence Rice for romance, undersea adventures for excitement and Bela Lugosi as a menace.

The Miami News, August 2, 1935