Je suis la loi

"I am the Law" (1938) Professor John Lindsay (E.G. Robertson) is taking a sabbatical from his law position. He volunteers to go after the gangsters in town. He thinks it will be easy but very quickly he learns those in charge don't want him to succeed & that includes his staff chosen by the city fathers & Eugene Ferguson (Otto Kruger) Paul's father & head of the mob.

So he & his top student Paul Ferguson (John Beal) volunteer to go after gangsters & corruption from his home. Because those in charge want to see failure John & Paul are fired. With his wife Jerry (Barbara O'Neil) he recruits his top graduated law students to form an unpaid army of law enforcers. What will happen next? What & see!

i had never heard of this film until i ran across it on turner classic movies one day. It wasn't one of his best or worst films, come to think of it edward g. robinson never really made a bad film. As for the film itself, unless your a big edward g. robinson fan like me you probably shouldn't watch it.

Little Caesar himself, Edward G. Robinson, is one of the good guys in "I Am the Law" in this 1938 film also starring Barbara O'Neill, Otto Kruger, John Beal, and Wendie Barrie.

Robinson plays John Lindsay, a professor on sabbatical, looking forward to his first vacation with his wife (O'Neill) in a long time. But at the last minute, he's asked to become special prosecutor and fight the corruption taking place in the town, as the authorities haven't been successful. He asks his best student, Paul Ferguson (Beal) to work with him. It soon becomes apparent that there is a leak in his staff, as they finally get a witness willing to talk and he's killed. Before Lindsay can get rid of the corruption in town, he needs to get rid of it in his own office.

This is a fairly routine film with a good cast. Robinson was a little man but a wonderful actor with a powerful voice. He could play the most pathetic weakling or the toughest, meanest guy on earth. Here he's plenty tough but with a lot of warmth. Robinson is well thought of as an actor from the classic period, certainly, but I wonder sometimes if he isn't a little underrated.

As far as the other actors, Otto Kruger plays Paul Ferguson's father and gives his usual smooth performance. John Beal got the star buildup at RKO, but after RKO, he signed with MGM. He was young, handsome, and had a kind of earnestness. When the Gable-Harlow deal to do "In Old Chicago" at Fox as a trade for Tyrone Power doing "Madame X" fell through, Beal was given the part of the son. He never achieved stardom. He was, however, a very prolific Broadway actor particularly after World War II, and continued to do films and television until 1993. I had the pleasure of meeting him in the '80s, and he was very charming.

This is an okay film, enjoyable for the performances. The story is fairly routine.

I Am the Law (1938)

** (out of 4)

Disappointing crime/drama from Columbia has Edward G. Robinson playing a law professor who is hired by civic leaders to try and bring down gangsters as a special prosecutor. The prosecutor thinks this will be an easy job but soon he realizes that no one wants to testify and if anyone agrees to then they end up dead. I had high hopes going into this film but the end results were pretty disappointing as we've seen this story countless times before and this one doesn't offer up anything new. I'm really not sure why Robinson would leave Warner to do this film as this one has a lot to do in common with the various crime pictures he was doing already. Considering Columbia wasn't known for their crime pictures it goes without saying that this one comes off rather bland and watered down as the screenplay doesn't have any real gut to it. The screenplay goes from one cliché moment to the next and I honestly didn't see one surprise throughout the entire thing. Robinson is pretty good in his role but it's certainly far from one of his best performances. The highlight of the film is a scene where we get Robinson on the dance floor, which has to be seen to be believed. The supporting players are pretty rich with John Beal, Otto Kruger, Wendy Barrie and Barbara O'Neil offering up nice work.

Law professor John Lindsay (Edward G. Robinson) is asked by a civic leader (Otto Kruger) to become a special prosecutor to go after the racketeers in town. He doesn't know he's being duped by the civic leader until a man he promises protection to is killed by the man's henchmen. After realizing that gangsters have infiltrated his staff, he recruits his law students to form an army of law enforcers.

Robinson is excellent in a "good man" role and Barbara O'Neil is radiant as his supportive wife. John Beal is a little too enthusiastic in his supporting role as Kruger's son but Wendy Barrie makes an interesting impression as a glamorous and ruthless gang moll.

Although the script is full of improbabilities, it's a tense and tidy little programmer, and this time Edward G. is working at Columbia instead of Warner Bros. Despite that fact, the film has the look of the kind of gritty crime melodramas Warners produced in those days--which is a compliment.