Night Beat

In some unnamed city, the District Attorney is frustrated in his attempts to stop the Scarpelli mob. When an old army buddy, Johnny Molinas, arrives in town, the D.A. knows Molinas is a gangster but convinces him to throw in his lot with law & order....or at least order. This is because conventional means to stop Scarpelli have failed...and Molinas has no problem doing what has to be done to stop Scarpelli. This means, essentially, executing Scarpelli and his gang! Molinas' little police force shoots first...period!

This notion of using thugs to wipe out other thugs comes from a suggestion by an Italian-American merchant who tells the D.A. "What you need in this country is Mussolini"....and that's essentially how they take care of the gang. It makes for some very exciting viewing...but is also appalling in the complete disregard for civil rights. As a result, the film is very interesting from a sociological/historical standpoint....that some folks in the USA thought the best way to deal with crime is Fascism.

While the acting and production values are only fair (after all, it's just a cheap B-movie with mostly no-name actors), the story is exciting and is a great example of Pre-Code law and order films.

... is the odd theme of this off-beat poverty row gangster film from 1931. Martin and Johnny are WWI war buddies. After the war, Martin is with an urban police department and Johnny becomes a gangster. Martin has tried locking up the local gangster (Chill Scarpelli and his mob) the completely on-the-level way, and it hasn't worked. When Scarpelli's mob unsuccessfully shakes down an Italian merchant and in retaliation Scarpelli vandalizes his store, the Italian tells Martin that Mussolini's way is best - that "get out or get shot" should be the law's attitude with gangsters. Martin likes this idea and, knowing Johnny is a gangster, employs his old army buddy and his mob to eradicate the Scarpelli mob using any means necessary. Johnny takes on this assignment with gusto. But is Johnny just cleaning out Scarpelli to take over his territory or is he doing a friend a favor? On top of that potential problem, Martin's girl and Johnny take a shine to one another.

The acting and production values are nothing to write home about here, but if you're interested in history at all - and not necessarily film history at that - this film has got to appeal to you. It acts as a period piece showing just how close we may have come to adopting Fascism, and how for awhile in the early 30's, their result-driven methods probably appealed to many jobless Depression-weary Americans.

Jack Mulhall is good here as gangster Johnny, and Patsy Ruth Miller does a good job of playing the girl who really likes Martin, but finds herself loving Johnny. Both of these actors had seen better days in silents. For some reason they just didn't go over with audiences once movies adopted sound.

Harry Cording's mob is too well connected for DA Walter McGrail to put down. When gangster Jack Mulhall moves into town, McGrail has him brought to his office. Soon they're laughing and reminiscing; McGrail had saved his life during the War. He offers Mulhall a badge to fight fire with gunfire. Mulhall's mob thinks it's a swell idea.

Director George B. Seitz takes Scott Darling's script and pretty much runs riot with it, with lots of shooting, admiring references to Mussolini and overt police corruption. William Wellman was getting away with it at Warners, so this Poverty Row production does the same, albeit a little more coyly. It's a decent effort, even though the mob continues to be very WASPy; the only obvious Italian is a guy running a French laundry.