Throw in Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane and Frank McHugh (just for laughs), and you've got an enjoyable - if somewhat formulaic - crime drama from the 1930's. While there are some differences between it and others that feature James Cagney (many directed by Michael Curtiz), Bullets or Ballots (1936) was in the more than capable hands of genre veterans: director William Keighley and writer Seton I. Miller.
The film opens by detailing just how deeply ingrained the mob has become in this country's everyday activities, skimming pennies from virtually every financial transaction (even pinball machines in ice cream parlors) and accumulating profits that exceed the US Treasury. Johnny Blake (Robinson) is a tough guy cop in one big city whose reputation is feared among all the hoods but, because of rampant corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement, has been relegated to handling petty crimes.
While he was the scourge of mobsters, Johnny earned a reputation as a stand-up guy with integrity that even crime boss Al Kruger (MacLane) respected, the two maintaining a cordial relationship. Lee Morgan (Blondell), a nightclub owner that runs a small numbers game that her associate Nellie (Louise Beavers) 'invented', is dismayed that her friend Johnny has accepted his more humble role. McHugh provides comic relief as Lee's incompetent math-challenged assistant Herman.
When a new independent police Captain Dan McLaren (Joseph King) is appointed to finally break the mob's stranglehold on society, Johnny is among those that's let go in the house cleaning; he's deemed no longer effective. This gives Kruger an opportunity to bring in Johnny as his new second-in-charge lieutenant; he's become wary of his current too ambitious right-hand man Fenner (Bogart). Fenner and his thugs don't trust Johnny, especially given McLaren's early successes, so they tail Johnny hoping to prove he's a snitch.
If you're a fan of what was largely the Warner Brothers' bread-and- butter genre, you should enjoy this 80+ minute movie without being bothered that its title has almost nothing to do with the proceedings.
The film opens by detailing just how deeply ingrained the mob has become in this country's everyday activities, skimming pennies from virtually every financial transaction (even pinball machines in ice cream parlors) and accumulating profits that exceed the US Treasury. Johnny Blake (Robinson) is a tough guy cop in one big city whose reputation is feared among all the hoods but, because of rampant corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement, has been relegated to handling petty crimes.
While he was the scourge of mobsters, Johnny earned a reputation as a stand-up guy with integrity that even crime boss Al Kruger (MacLane) respected, the two maintaining a cordial relationship. Lee Morgan (Blondell), a nightclub owner that runs a small numbers game that her associate Nellie (Louise Beavers) 'invented', is dismayed that her friend Johnny has accepted his more humble role. McHugh provides comic relief as Lee's incompetent math-challenged assistant Herman.
When a new independent police Captain Dan McLaren (Joseph King) is appointed to finally break the mob's stranglehold on society, Johnny is among those that's let go in the house cleaning; he's deemed no longer effective. This gives Kruger an opportunity to bring in Johnny as his new second-in-charge lieutenant; he's become wary of his current too ambitious right-hand man Fenner (Bogart). Fenner and his thugs don't trust Johnny, especially given McLaren's early successes, so they tail Johnny hoping to prove he's a snitch.
If you're a fan of what was largely the Warner Brothers' bread-and- butter genre, you should enjoy this 80+ minute movie without being bothered that its title has almost nothing to do with the proceedings.