How many 1930's movies can boast appearances by so many notable character actors? RKO managed to assemble the cream of every other studio's character crop: the under-rated WB veteran Arthur Hohl, Mischa Auer, Maroni Olsen, James Gleason, Jane Darwell (as his Ms.), Hattie McDaniel (one scene as what else? A maid)... plus one of my favorite 'oily guys,' Harold Huber and, as a child, future film documentarian, Delmar Watson? I think I even spied the ubiquitous Ed Brophy in one scene. The plot is strictly B-movie material: a gung-ho cop (Preston Foster) is bent on bringing down the city's crooks single-handedly, even promising a 30-day deadline. Bad guy (funny man Mischa Auer in a dramatic turn) escapes and her gets suspended. There's several way-cool scenes: the primitive polygraph and a terrific lead-filled finale. Plus you get an amazingly hot 24-year old Jane Wyatt (who left me wondering why she never fell for the peroxide bottle like so many 30's starlets) in what I think was only her third film role. RKO was pulling itself out of the Depression in 1935--- "We're Only Human" was produced by the newly promoted Edward Kaufman, who moved in to fill the void left by the departure of Meriam C. Cooper. In a year when the studio produced monster hits like 'Top Hat" and "The Informer," this is certainly not on the same plateau, but entries like this helped put the studio in the black for the first time since 1930. Three things I noticed: Preston unloads his S&W inside Wyatt's apartment without anyone calling the cops, and when you do see the cops, they all appear to be driving already-then-old 1929 Lincoln Phaetons and finally, Ms. Wyatt displays a shocking lack of driver's safety by sucking face with Preston Foster so long that they should've rightly ended up running off a cliff or wrapped around a tree. Thank God for rear projection.
