September 19 movie: The Crash. No, not Crash (neither the Cronenberg movie from the Ballard story, nor the one from a couple of years ago about racism). This was a pre-code movie about the stock market crash directed by William Dieterle. George Brent plays a rich guy who made his fortune in the stock market, assisted by his wife, Ruth Chatterton, who he whores out by pushing her to seduce market insiders so he can get stock tips. The market crashes and so do they; Chatterton ditches Brent and moves to Bermuda where she goes to work on an Australian sheep rancher who, being Australian, wasn't affected by the market crash.
The ending is kind of lame, one of those "oh, we're at the end of the film, guess that means we should get back together" sort of endings. But still, it was a good movie. An interesting depiction of people who were addicted to the stock market. Even after Brent has lost everything, he never tries to get a job; he just keeps trying the market, eventually resorting to blackmail to get capital so he can buy more stocks.
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