INDIANAPOLIS — Film historian Eric Grayson begins the monthly Vintage Movie Nights at Garfield Park Arts Center on Sat., Jan. 27, at 7 p.m., with a 1934 independent feature released through Universal, I Can’t Escape, starring Onslow Stevens and Lila Lee.
I Can’t Escape survives today, according to Grayson, because it was edited and reprinted as a half-hour television show. The version being shown at Garfield, however, is the complete version, one of the only prints in the world to survive. (The copy on archive.org was made from this print.)
Handsome ex-con Steve Nichols (Stevens) is unable to get work during the Great Depression. Desperate for any income, he is taken in by some financial con artists who intend to use him to raise investment funds, steal the money, and leave him looking like the guilty party.
I Can’t Escape is an engaging film with lovely Art Deco sets, added Grayson, one of the better independent products of the period.
The remainder of the 2018 Vintage Movie Night selections include Singin’ in the Rain (1952) Feb. 17, One Body Too Many (1944) March 3, and The Pay-Off (1942) April 28.
