Outcasts of Poker Flat

While a gambler named Oakhurst, a lady of ill-repute, and a drunkard are indeed present in 20th Century Fox's The Outcasts of Poker Flat, it would require copious use of an opium pipe to discover any further similarities between the film and the Bret Harte story of the same moniker. This is not to say that the net result isn't mildly diverting, which it is, though the melodrama gets a little sticky around the fourth reel.

The Fox version of Outcasts concerns itself primarily with a bank robber, the robber's wife, and the gambler, plus considerable window dressing provided by other blizzard-bound characters. It also makes a remarkable value judgment to the effect that bank robbers are a scurvy lot, while full time gamblers are engaged in an honorable if unusual profession. This distinction no doubt will distress Senator Kefauver, but it was calmly accepted by the clientele of the Metropolitan Theatre.

The second feature at the Met, Anything Can Happen, is also supposed to be an "A" film. It isn't. Anything Can Happen is a tedious tidbit about how Georgians from Russia can achieve success in America while still clinging tenaciously to the bizarre traditions of the Caucasian mountains. It relies heavily on pidgin English for its humor and Horatio Alger for its plot, and the net result shows that a cliche, even in dialect, is still a cliche.