Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The ridiculous title aside, this is an OK gangster film with more gab then guns, although there is an edge to the execution and display. The script is interesting in a behind the scenes kind of way that lets us in on the money machines and political corruption that is Warners trademark of message movies. The attraction here is the two stars and the modern fascination with these actors and their tough guy personas and they don't disappoint.This film is more sanitized and sterile then the best of the gangster films (as the newly defined Hays Code forced tricky gymnastic presentations of the seedy and the sultry). But the studio professionals were up to the task and a "new" type of underworld uncovering emerged on the screen. For better or worse.

As crime melodramas go, this is a good one from Warner Bros. in the mid-'30s.And once again, EDWARD G. ROBINSON, HUMPHREY BOGART, JOAN BLONDELL and BARTON MacLANE do good jobs as part of the Warner stock company. It's really an assembly line melodrama about the numbers racket based on real life headlines from the '30s.It's effective in documenting the story of how a police detective (Robinson) fired from his job decides to infiltrate the mob by pretending to accept a job from the crime boss (MacLane). Humphrey Bogart is MacLane's trigger-happy partner, warned by MacLane not to shoot from the hip at anyone who crosses them. But soon it's MacLane himself who is victimized by the ambitious Bogart who wants the number one job for himself and resents any interference from Robinson.It all builds toward an exciting climax with a downbeat ending for Robinson. Surprisingly, it's directed at a fast pace by the very urbane and debonair William Keighley and not the studio's more intense Michael Curtiz whom we associate more with his ability to handle tough crime melodramas.

This turned out to be a decent '30s gangster movie, not a lot different from a few others I've seen where Humphrey Bogart plays the bad guy and is the main adversary of the hero. Several films had James Cagney up against him; here it was Edward G Robinson.Robinson plays policeman "Det. Johnny Blake," who goes underground, so to speak, by posing as a gang member to get the goods on them. (It's based on a real-life character.) Robinson, as usual, is very interesting to watch and is a tough guy BUT with a soft heart. In fact, he even feels bad about betraying the head crook because he has such principles of being a "straight shooter" that he doesn't feel right lying to anybody, even the gang leader "Al Krueger" (Barton MacLane). Bogart plays "Nick Fenner," Al's number-one guy and is more of the villain than his boss. Joan Blondell gets second billing but that's not right because she's at least fourth in the amount of screen time and lines. There really is no real love interest in this movie; it's strictly a crime story.When I first saw this movie, a little over a decade ago on VHS, I wasn't that impressed but last week, watching this on DVD, not only was the story better than I remembered but the picture was excellent. The blacks, whites and grays in here are beautiful. This was part of the "Tough Guys" DVD package and they did a wonderful job on the transfer.

Okay, I'll admit that MOST of the Warner Brothers films of the 1930s starring actors like Cagney, Bogart and Edward G. Robinson were predictable and formulaic. But, they were also very entertaining and the public loved them. I happen to be a real fan of the films but know that they aren't exactly "high art" or always 100% believable! Well, this is such a film, as you really need to suspend disbelief and just sit back and enjoy--and boy, did I enjoy this dandy film.Robinson played a tough as nails detective who used to be a force to be reckoned with in the police department, but in recent years instead of smashing organized crime, he's been reassigned to more mundane activities. And, he's got REAL ATTITUDE, as when hoods see him on the street, he's likely to slug them if they don't show him "proper respect". At the same time, the grand jury is outraged by the proliferation of organized crime, so they appoint a new Police Commissioner. However, unexpectedly, this new Commissioner unexpectedly fires Robinson instead of having him return to his old mob-fighting ways! Now at this point, considering who Robinson's character was, it seemed obvious that his being fired was NOT "strictly on the level". Where this goes and how the movie wraps everything up, I'll leave to you.The acting is fun and exactly what you'd expect from an old gangster picture. The combination of Robinson, Barton MacLane and Bogart as the leads is exceptional and is sure to please, though I must admit that MacLane's character, at times, seems a bit stupid and gullible--he wasn't the best written character in the film.