Hommes sans loi

Humphrey Bogart stars in the Warner Bros. Crime melodrama from 1939. A husband & wife doctor team barely make do due the hubby's gambling habits. One night he's approached by one of Bogart's minions to patch up one of his wounded which he does gaining Bogart's favor which helps to elevate the doctors' status as they open up a private office & start living the good life. When the wife, played by Kay Francis, realizes where their good fortune is coming from, she admonishes her hubby, played by John Eldredge, only for him to go off to cater to another of Bogart's fallen which prompts Francis to follow him only to be corralled by a police sting where her hubby buys it. Francis is charged but is given a couple of weeks to prove her innocence (what?) so she follows Bogart's crew out to the sticks hoping the moment will come when he'll need her talents. Meanwhile Bogart meets up w/a out of work Brit novelist , played by James Stephenson, who he takes a fancy to (they share a love of Napoleon) so much so he contracts him to write his biography but when he gets hurt (Bogart's crew robs a bank & the author is shot innocently in the background), Francis volunteers her services to patch him up (the town mistake him as being a member of Bogart's crew) & even extends a hand by giving him some work at the home she shares w/her aunt. When Bogart himself gets nicked in the arm by a gunshot, Francis is only too happy to help out since she's going to use her new friendship w/him to turn him & his gang over to the authorities. Pretty standard fare to be sure but then the ending where Francis convinces Bogart his gunshot wound has infected his eyes (prompting her to bring a solution to indeed blind him temporarily under the guise of some administered medicine) which becomes a nail biting exercise as she gives the tainted eyedrop doses to Bogart & his bunch, even Stephenson (to facilitate an escape), blinding them all while the approaching police hope to catch them. Feeling like a leftover gag from an Our Gang serial, helps put this potboiler over the top by sheer chutzpah if not pragmatic sense.

Decent remake of Dr. Socrates changes a few things, including the gender of the doctor. In the original it was the great Paul Muni. Here, it's Kay Francis. The real star of this film, however, is Humphrey Bogart. This was made during the period when Warner Bros. still had Bogie playing villainous gangster characters. This is one of the better movies that are considered "lesser" Bogart pictures. He's great fun in the role and steals every scene he's in. The plot is about a falsely-maligned female doctor (Francis) who sets out to prove her innocence by infiltrating Bogart's gang. There's a few holes in the plot but it's a short, smoothly-paced WB gangster flick so you don't really care that much. Just sit back and enjoy some good old fashioned popcorn entertainment.

The central role in this low-budget crime melodrama really belongs to KAY FRANCIS, and she makes her lady doctor pretty believable. But it's HUMPHREY BOGART who walks off with the show, which is no more than a programmer made on the cheap, by playing up the comic elements of his character.

Bogart is an illiterate man who wants his "genius" to be known. He kidnaps a man (James Stephenson) with a reputation as a writer in order to tell him his life story and make him the "king of the underworld." But Kay Francis spoils all his plans when she has to prove herself innocent of criminal charges pending against her due to a prior event. She fools the hoods into believing they will go blind if they don't let her help them.

The story has several implausible script problems and never really comes off as credible. Interesting only to see that Bogart was far more worthy of his early material than the studio realized. And Kay Francis has one of her more believable roles in this crime melodrama.

In an effort to elevate Humphrey Bogart's star and get rid of Kay Francis, Warners remade Dr. Socrates, giving the good doctor a sex change and making him Kay Francis instead. However, Bogart gets top billing and Francis' role was reduced. It didn't work; Francis kept plodding along until the end of her contract. Also, I still felt she came across as the star in this.

Francis plays a doctor whose husband starts picking up easy money repairing the wounds of gangsters and not reporting on their illegal activities. Eventually, he is killed in a raid, and the police are convinced that Francis was in on it with her husband. Unless she can prove her innocence, she's going to lose her medical license. When she gets a lead on the gang's whereabouts, she sets up shop in the same town.

It's really hard to believe this movie came out in 1939 - it has the look and feel of something done about five years earlier. Bogart is good as a cocky and violent criminal who trusts no one and is too fast with a gun. Stardom is just ahead for the actor, as well as lots less of films like this.

Francis was past the magic age of 30 by this time, and her big star, big film days were behind her. She would soon fall to second leads and eventually move over to Monogram for several films, and, after a couple of early TV appearances, would retire. Everything about Francis embodies the strong '30s career woman, and it's hard to picture her out of the era. She does a great job in this as a determined, classy woman who has to use her wits to get out of a bad situation. An eminently watchable actress.

Worth seeing for Francis and Bogart just before his great career takes off.

Humphrey Bogart was tiring of playing gangsters in film after film for "Warner Bros." and sought any kind of variation in such vehicles. In "King of the Underworld," his character has a Napoleon fixation and has aspirations to become just like him. The running time helps to keep this minor movie at a reasonable pace. Kay Francis was once a fairly big star but by 1939, her popularity had gone into decline. She is hardly remembered these days but she was a very capable performer. In this movie, she plays a doctor who has no choice but to leave her city practice and set up shop in the countryside. Bogart isn't quite his usual evil, sneering self and his scenes with Francis are quite good. The film doesn't rise above being ordinary but it isn't a terrible film by any means.