Bullets or Ballots (1936) DVDRip (SiRiUs sHaRe)

Bullets or Ballots (1936)

After Police Captain Dan McLaren becomes police commissioner former detective Johnny Blake knocks him down convincing rackets boss Al Kruger that Blake is sincere in his effort to join the mob. "Buggs" Fenner thinks Blake is a police agent.

Edward G. Robinson ... Detective Johnny Blake
Joan Blondell ... Lee Morgan
Barton MacLane ... Al Kruger
Humphrey Bogart ... Nick 'Bugs' Fenner
Frank McHugh ... Herman McCloskey
Joe King ... Capt. Dan 'Mac' McLaren (as Joseph King)
Dick Purcell ... Ed Driscoll (as Richard Purcell)
George E. Stone ... Wires Kagel
Joseph Crehan ... Johnson (Grand Jury spokesman)
Henry O'Neill ... Ward Bryant, Newspaper Publisher
Henry Kolker ... Mr. Hollister
Gilbert Emery ... Mr. Thorndyke
Herbert Rawlinson ... Mr. Caldwell
Louise Beavers ... Nellie LaFleur
Norman Willis ... Louie Vinci

Director: William Keighley

Runtime: 82 mins

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027407/

Codecs:

Video : 652 MB, 1116 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 512*384 (4:3), XVID = XVID Mpeg-4,
Audio : 44 MB, 76 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 1 channels, 0x55 = Lame MP3, CBR,

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This turned out to be a decent '30s gangster movie, not a lot different from a few others I've seen where Humphrey Bogart plays the bad guy and is the main adversary of the hero. Several films had James Cagney up against him; here it was Edward G Robinson.

Robinson plays policeman "Det. Johnny Blake," who goes underground, so to speak, by posing as a gang member to get the goods on them. (It's based on a real-life character.) Robinson, as usual, is very interesting to watch and is a tough guy BUT with a soft heart. In fact, he even feels bad about betraying the head crook because he has such principles of being a "straight shooter" that he doesn't feel right lying to anybody, even the gang leader "Al Krueger" (Barton MacLane).

Bogart plays "Nick Fenner," Al's number-one guy and is more of the villain than his boss. Joan Blondell gets second billing but that's not right because she's at least fourth in the amount of screen time and lines. There really is no real love interest in this movie; it's strictly a crime story.

When I first saw this movie, a little over a decade ago on VHS, I wasn't that impressed but last week, watching this on DVD, not only was the story better than I remembered but the picture was excellent. The blacks, whites and grays in here are beautiful. This was part of the "Tough Guys" DVD package and they did a wonderful job on the transfer.

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Edward G. Robinson stars in yet another classic gangster film from the folks who did them best at Warner Brothers. This time his character of John Blake is based on real life NYPD detective John Broderick.

Back in the day you would not have given much chance for Broderick to grow old and die in bed. Yet in 1966 that's what he did do. Back in the day too many of New York's noted underworld figures felt his knuckles in various parts of the anatomy.

Broderick was independent, fearless, and honest, the last being a rather rare commodity in the days of and just after Prohibition. Good thing he retired before the Miranda decision. He didn't think that hoodlums had any civil rights.

Because Broderick was so open and known to all undercover work was impossible. But in Bullets or Ballots Robinson is kicked off the force for excessive brutality and joins the hoods he's been beating on.

But it's all an act. It's a deal worked out by Broderick and the Police Commissioner so he can go undercover and get the goods on the numbers racket. The ostensible heads, Barton MacLane and Humphrey Bogart and the respectable types they're fronting for.

Though the ending is melodramatic, Bullets or Ballots holds up pretty well today. And who knows, Broderick's real life might yet rate a good biographical picture today.

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Today, when we see actors like Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino jump from playing a bad guy to a good guy, we hardly bat an eye. After all, it IS Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino. But in those olden days of Hollywood, if you were a bad guy, you would always play the bad guy. That's one of the reasons why "Bullets Or Ballots" is so incredible. It features Edward G. Robinson, famous for playing gangsters in films like "Little Caesar", playing a good guy. And that's just one of the interesting, not to mention entertaining, aspects of this movie.

When this movie was released in 1936, America was going through a social shift. During the Prohibition Era of the 1920's, gangsters were romanticized as urban "Robin Hoods" (Personified in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby") because they sold beer to a thirsty public who did not support the Prohibition laws. But after the bloody rampage of the Roaring 20's gang wars of men like Al Capone, "Dutch" Schultz, and The Purple Gang, and the Depression Era Bank Robbing sprees of John Dillinger, "Babyface" Nelson, and "Machine Gun" Kelly, America had had enough of the gangsters. Sensing the social shift, Warner Brothers stopped making movies about the gangster (more or less) and started making movies celebrating the cops and federal agents who battled the mob. The first of these films was "G-Men" starring James Cagney as an FBI agent in 1935. "Bullets Or Ballots" came next.

In the film, Edward G. Robinson portrays Johnny Blake, and Eliot Ness-like gang buster in the NYPD. Blake is such a good cop that not only is he admired by his fellow cops but he's also respected by the mob. While that may seem a little corny, it turns out to be very poignant in the end. When a wave of reform sweeps the city with the appointment of a new, honest, grand jury, and an honest police chief, Blake finds himself kicked off the force on a trumped up charge of "derilection of duty". Blake is then offered a job as the "chief of security" by New York mobster Al Kruger (Barton MacLane in another tough guy roll). Kruger wants Blake to use his police know-how to make sure the rackets are running smoothly and cannot be dismantled by the new reform movement. Because of that afore mentioned respect Kruger and the other mobsters have for Blake, the former cop moves into the organization with ease, despite being kept under the watchful eye of "Bugs" Fenner (a pre-fame Humphrey Bogart in a cookie-cutter thug roll he would be stuck playing before his breakthrough in "Casablanca"), a gangster who is still suspicious of Blake. Johnny's new position also puts him at odds with many of his former friends in the police department as well as his girlfriend, Lee (Joan Blondell) who runs an independent gambling racket out of her nightclub. But little do they know, and "Bugs" Fenner rightfully suspects, Johnny Blake has not turned bad...he's still working for the police as an undercover officer! In a clever ruse developed by Blake and the new police chief, Blake has faked getting thrown off the force in order to infiltrate the crime syndicate and collapse it from within.

This is an exciting movie with the right balance of twists, turns, drama, action, and even humor (With the inclusion gangland comic relief Frank McHugh), making it an movie sadly over looked when mentioning the great gangster pictures of the era. The only part of this film I didn't like was the cringe-worthy portrayal of African Americans in this film. In the movie, there is a woman named Nellie who runs the gambling racket for Lee out of her club. She's of the grossly stereotypical "Yessah, Miss Lee" ignorant blacks. Unfortunately, this type of character was considered "acceptable" by film making standards in those days and is my only reason for not giving one of my all-time favorite gangster movies a full 10 stars.

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# Johnny Blake, played by Edward G. Robinson, was based on real-life policeman Johnny Broderick, while Al Kruger, played by Barton MacLane, was based on notorious gangster Dutch Schultz.

# In the film, it is suggested that Joan Blondell's character got the idea of the numbers racket from her assistant, "Nellie". In reality, the numbers racket was pioneered by black gambling racketeers in Harlem. The "Nellie" character was based on Stephanie "Madame Queen" St. Clair (Nellie scoffs at being called "Madam Nellie"). As in the film, the numbers racket was eventually taken over by "Dutch" Schultz and "Lucky" Luciano (The Humphrey Bogart and Barton MacLane characters, respectively).