Gang Bullets

1938's "Gang Bullets" shows that Monogram could occasionally compete with Warners' crime dramas, though on a noticeably smaller budget and less action. At the same time Boris Karloff began his 'Mr. Wong' series, the studio's modest ambitions show in this gritty expose of crime boss Morgan Wallace, against crusading District Attorney Charles Trowbridge, with top billing awarded former Warners starlet Anne Nagel, best remembered for her work at Universal in "Black Friday" and "Man Made Monster" (one of her last roles came in Monogram's Charlie Chan entry "The Trap," wearing a fetching bathing suit). After playing the surprise killer in "Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo," Robert Kent was back on the right side of the law, soon starring opposite Bela Lugosi in the 1939 serial "The Phantom Creeps." Morgan Wallace usually played villains, as he soon would in "Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation," before his memorable encounter with W. C. Fields in "My Little Chickadee."

Forced out of one city by some extralegal methods of one district attorney, gangster Morgan Wallace simply moves to another to set up shop. Wallace is into all kinds of illegal rackets and has the police and DA really stumped. The press is clamoring for DA Charles Trowbridge's scalp, a prospect not pleasing to Trowbridge's daughter Anne Nagel and her fiancé Robert Kent who is also Trowbridge's number one assistant.

Gang Bullets comes from out of Monogram Pictures so you can't expect too much and believe me you won't get it. The film has some interesting ideas that don't seem to follow up. At one point Wallace talks about building his racket by letting a few suckers win some big pots at his gambling establishment and then becoming advertisements. It sounded like an interesting film idea that is never followed up on. There's also an interlude where two of Wallace's henchmen bring a third wounded comrade into some woman's home with her 12 year old boy. It plays like a bit from another film entirely. In fact that whole premise was used later on with much greater effect in The Desperate Hours.

In the end Trowbridge goes to some extraordinary lengths to bring down Wallace. But even the end is rather anti-climatic.

Stuff like Gang Bullets was done so much better over at Warner Brothers.

After watching this recently, it really dawned on me the big gap between crime stories on film of the 1930s to ones made from 1940 on. The '30s look and sound so more dated than ones just a half dozen years later. Part of that is good because the 1930s expressions are fun to hear and the films are shorter and faster-paced, and a bit edgier.

The cops that appear are really different. Even though there is a lot of moralizing - which is fine with me, such as prefaces right before the feature warning of the dangers of crimes and having criminals glorified, the films themselves actually make the cops look like thugs as well as the criminals!

The police are shown treating suspects as if they are already convicted felons, roughing them up, denying them a lawyer, detaining them illegally, etc. - and they are supposed to be the good guys?! I am no Liberal by a longshot but no wonder laws were put in to protect average citizens from the police, if that's the way things were. In fact, I was shocked to hear the term "police brutality" in this movie. I always thought that expression came from the 1960s, but here it is in a 1938 film. However, in an interesting twist, in this film two crooks fake "police brutality" to get out of testifying before a grand jury against their vicious gangland boss. Interesting things happen after that, and this film gets better and better as it goes on. The main crook, played by Morgan Wallace, is really fascinating in his brutal attitude. At least they still made the bad guys worse people than those 'brutal' cops.

These '30 gangster movies. may be hokey, corny, extremely dated and inadvertently not favorable to the police here and there, but they don't mess around by being too talky. They get to the point and they are simply fun to watch.

Note: The IMDb board here hasn't listed this as available on DVD but that's how I watched it yesterday. It's part of a 4-film DVD pack entitled "Mobster Movies."

Noble district attorney Charles Trowbridge (as Dexter Wayne) and young assistant Robert Kent (as John Carter) are put to task when racketeer Morgan Wallace (as "Big Bill" Anderson) moves his base of criminal operations to their law-abiding Bridgetown. With sharp lawyers and knowledge about his rights, Mr. Wallace proves to be a tough mobster to convict, and the town becomes riddled with scandal. Pretty Anne Nagel (as Patricia "Pat" Wayne), the fiancée of Mr. Kent and daughter of Mr. Trowbridge, is startled when Wallace's corruption gets too close for comfort...

This is a cheap, slow-moving crime drama from the "Monogram" company. The first interesting scene involves some rough interrogations - watch cameras keep rolling as Donald Kerr (as Joe Armstrong) gets his hat tossed onto the floor by a policeman. No retakes there. The highlight may be seeing young Bennie Bartlett (as Billy Jones), future "Bowery Boys" member, play a twelve-year-old who gets hit harder than most films of the era might allow. Top-billed Ms. Nagel isn't given very much to do. Trowbridge does what he can with the story's most interesting role.

**** Gang Bullets (11/10/38) Lambert Hillyer ~ Robert Kent, Anne Nagel, Charles Trowbridge, Morgan Wallace

When the theaters were owned by the major studios in the 30's and 40's the price of a ticket got you a feature film, cartoon, news reel, and what is now called a 'B' movie. "Gang Bullets" is one from Monogram, a major player during this era. If this film is judged against others in the same class I would put it in the upper 25%. Starring Anne Nagel (a rare top billing), Robert Kent, and Charles Towbridge it tells the story of a fast talking racketeer who thinks the district attorney can't touch him. The law has other ideas but can they capture the criminal? The 63 minute film moves along under the direction of Lambert Hillyer and the watchful eye of Scott Dunlap. There are hacked up versions including the internet archive version which is not as sharp and shorter. The DVD I purchased is much better quality and available for under $5.00. Abe Meyer, who made his living providing source music for many of these films did an adequate job with this one. A good watch.