MovieChat Forums > You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939) Discussion > Basic flaw in the plot

Basic flaw in the plot

posted 14 years ago by Arey2
2 replies | jump to latest

This overwrought melodrama has a major basic flaw which makes the rest of the plot ridiculous. The gas station they held up at the beginning was in New Jersey,
Bogart's and Halop's characters would have been serving time in a New Jersey prison for the holdup not SingSing. Minor goofs are that the tourist sightseeing boat would have been going up the Delaware river from which SingSing isn't visible and the cliffs along the road that they fled north on after robbing the gas station didn't look like any road I've ever seen along the Jersey shore.Of course, if they hadn't shown the signpost showing that Atlantic City was 79 miles south of the gas station ,the whole issue wouldn't have arisen.

[–] radioguy88 14 years ago

You're obviously a bear for detail. Your knowledge of the area puts scrutiny on the accuracy of the film with regard to the proximity of Sing Sing and so forth. Since Bogart was the lead in B pictures and played supporting roles in A pictures in the late 1930's then this was obviously a B picture and perhaps Lewis Seiler and his team didn't pay strict attention to detail. That is probably one thing that separates an A picture from a B picture. The geographical, logistical and historical accuracy is followed more closely in an A picture.

[–] gribfritz2 11 years ago

Considering that the location of the gas station and the location of the prison aren't important to the plot, how does this even bother you as a viewer?

You also quibble that they didn't do extensive location shooting on a cheap B picture. I'm not really sure what you were expecting when you decided to watch this particular film starring a pre-stardom Bogart and a Dead End kid.