Sleepers East (1934)
No good deed goes unpunished for Lena Karelson (Wynne Gibson), hooker with a heart of gold trying to go straight in the big city. Covering a bachelor party for a friend in need, Lena winds up at a gambling house where she is the sole witness when Mayor Wentworth's drunken lout of a son shoots the owner. Wentworth's political machine wants Lena to falsely incriminate mob boss Callahan to bolster their re-election campaign. Callahan's mouthpiece nabs Lena first, conveying her stealthily by train from Toledo to New York to prevent her from testifying against the big boss. A midnight special smash-up, a tense courtroom finale and true love triumphant round out this typical Fox pre-Code programmer, released just before the Legion of Decency dropped the hammer in 1934.
Director: Kenneth MacKenna
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Wynne Gibson as Lena Karelson |
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Preston Foster as Jason Everett |
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Mona Barrie as Ada Robillard |
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Harvey Stephens as Martin Knox |
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Roger Imhof as MacGowan |
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J. Carrol Naish as Carl Izzard |
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Suzanne Kaaren as Dixie |
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Howard Lally as Jack Wentworth |
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Joseph Crehan as Conductor (uncredited) |
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Marianne Edwards as Baby (uncredited) |
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Francis Ford as Well-Wisher at Train Station (uncredited) |
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Douglas Fowley as Gangster (uncredited) |
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Fred 'Snowflake' Toones as Porter (uncredited) |
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Morgan Wallace as Prosecuting Attorney (uncredited) |
| Production | Sol M. Wurtzel | Producer |
| Art | Duncan Cramer | Production Design |
| Directing | Kenneth MacKenna | Director |
| Writing | Lester Cole | Writer |
| Writing | Frederick Nebel | Novel |
| Camera | Ernest Palmer | Director of Photography |
