Two Seconds (1932)

A man with a pure heart gets involved with a morally corrupt woman.

Greatly poignant drama, a triumph of screenwriting and mise-en-scène on every count. Robinson's performance is one of the best performances ever given by a movie lead. And the truth of the matter is that the whole cast is brilliant.
The funny thing is, I was only yesterday reading an essay by Nabokov called "The Tragedy of Tragedy" where he exposes his thesis that the rules of tragedy dictate its structure in such a constraining way that they practically dictate its contents as well. One of the things that are written down "in advance", so to speak, is that it must end in suicide. Considering that among the films I recently saw two are tragedies that do not end in suicide but in execution (Dishonored and this Two Seconds), I tried to come up with an explanation for the fact that this possibility is never considered in Nabokov's essay, and the only thing that occurred to me is that perhaps it isn't becoming to a play, whereas in a movie it can satisfactorily be depicted.
Two Seconds is number one in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1932.

Rating: 88
Number two in my list of favorites for 1932.