Dynamite (1929)

Money is certainly at the root of the evil for this love triangle as “Cynthia” (Kay Johnson) fancies the pants off the married “Roger” (Conrad Nagel) but he is married to her friend “Marcia” (Julia Faye). It turns out that she’d much rather have the cash than the man, though, and with “Cynthia” facing an interesting marital challenge if she is to keep her inherited fortune, agrees to swap her husband for $200,000! Thing is, she can’t get the cash in time so has to engage in a pro tem arrangement with death row candidate “Derk” (Charles Bickford) who is promised some funds for his young sister after he’s fried. Then her ointment gets a great big fly. The cops have the wrong man! Her new husband is released and “Cynthia” finds herself well and truly hitched. Luckily for her, he is no gold-digger but she’s going to need his cooperation if she is to keep her trust fund. He refuses to move in with her, so she must live with him and sister “Katie” (Muriel McCormac) and live by their, luxury-free, standards! Can they make it through the week without them killing each other - either intentionally or due to her abysmal cooking? The plot here isn’t the most difficult to anticipate but there are some solid characterisations and the humour works well, especially in the latter half of the drama when the salmon has to live as a sardine. It’s too long as once we’ve got the gist and the joke, it can tend to sag a little, but somehow you just know that someone, somewhere, is bound to do the right thing at some stage.