Guns Don't Argue

This feature-length movie has been edited from episodes of the 1952 TV series, Gangbusters. The style is government informative shorts presented by police agents and promoting their exploits. It dramatizes various gang crews and their ultimate downfalls. Some of the famous names include Pretty-Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, and Ma Barker.

In a way, this is an interesting look into early television. As a movie, it is little vignettes that don't gel together. Sure, I remember the shootout with the Barkers. Maybe the final Bonnie and Clyde shootout helps informed the later movie. Far more often, this is a weak production of disjointed scenes and I don't know the vast majority of these actors. The constant changing of the characters do not help.

TCM showed this movie in October 2016 along with other movies about the FBI. Three of the movies covered gangsters efforts to free one of their own in Kansas City. Those three were "G-Men" (1935), "The FBI Story" (1959, and...this one. The only reason I started watching "Guns Don't Argue" is because Lash LaRue was in the cast, and I wanted to see him play something other than Lash LaRue. By the time his scenes were finished I was near the end of the movie, so I stuck it out. The only reason to watch this movie is to see how similar stories were told by filmmakers with different budgets to work with or, in this case, with no budget at all. In two of the segments the bad guys have face lifts. The first, with the Al Karpis character, results in no change of appearance. The second, at the end involving John Dillinger (played by a guy I always liked -- Myron Healey) resulted in no change either, except for a mustache that kind of looked like a black caterpillar that I kept expecting to walk of his face. A couple of the reviewers stated this looked like an attempt by right-wing individuals trying to put forward their viewpoint. I don't see that; this movie is too incoherent. The only thing that comes out looking bad in this movie are the people who decided to put it together and, if they made any money, the laugh is on us, not them.

The history of early-twentieth-century organized crime, and the response of law enforcement, narrated on the budget of a high-school sex-ed movie. Martin Scorsese recommended this movie as the ultimate exemplar of visual storytelling on a well-worn shoestring, and he knows whereof he speaks: even Sam Fuller never had to portray a shooting death by dissolving to stock footage of a firing gun.

It was, just as it says at the top of the page, several episodes of the syndicated TV series, GANGBUSTERS, stitched together to make a feature-length film for the drive-in and grind-show theatres, and the producers were only interested in getting some more return on their investment...and didn't much care if some theatre patron came away miffed because he had already seen this mess for free on television, scattered across several 30-minute episodes. Each of those told a single story of some gangster or gangs, through some law-enforcement agent, and sometimes had different narrators telling the story.

Based on Philip H. Lord's radio program, and the comic strip of the same name. This is not one of the FBI-endorsed films or, to be exact, television series.

Dizzy, Dumb, and Downright Inaccurate with just about Everything. Where to Start? Why does IMDb put a Date of 1960 on the Thing and then in the Synopsis say it was "released to theaters in 1957"?

The 1950's were Ripe with Pro-Govt Propaganda from the Very Start of the Conservative Decade. Government Agencies, Law-Enforcement, Hell even the "Dog Catcher" could do No Wrong. It was an attempt to "Control" the Population, Shut-Up, Don't Ask Questions, Toe the Line, and be Good Consumers, No Worries, Big Brother is "Looking Out for You".

For the Most Part...It Worked.

"Gangbusters" was Produced for TV in 1952, this is a Compilation of Episodes Released to Movie Theaters in 1957. It is Riddled with Ridiculous Didactics, Smug, and Condescending. A Product of its Era. With Ed Wood Like Acting and Editing, the Film is Disorienting as it Clunks its way through every "Headliner" of Thirties "Gangsterdom".

Most of the Budget was probably Spent on "Tommy Guns" and Bullet Drums. It's pretty Bad even for Early TV. Kids of the Day Enjoyed it as Entertainment, but for Adults it's as Low-Brow as it gets. There are even a few Scenes that Reek of Exploitation with Pistols in the Garter-Belt and Extremely Tight Sweaters and Skirts.

What a Hoot!

Note...Good title though.