When a crusader against rackets is murdered, a grand jury battles the rackets by promoting McLaren to be in charge of the cleanup. He fires NYPD Detective Blake, who punches him and joins th... Read allWhen a crusader against rackets is murdered, a grand jury battles the rackets by promoting McLaren to be in charge of the cleanup. He fires NYPD Detective Blake, who punches him and joins the racket.When a crusader against rackets is murdered, a grand jury battles the rackets by promoting McLaren to be in charge of the cleanup. He fires NYPD Detective Blake, who punches him and joins the racket.
- Director
- Writers
- Seton I. Miller(screen play)
- Martin Mooney(story)
- Stars
- Director
- Writers
- Seton I. Miller(screen play)
- Martin Mooney(story)
- Stars
Videos1
- Capt. Dan McLarenas Capt. Dan McLaren
- (as Joseph King)
- Ed Driscollas Ed Driscoll
- (as Richard Purcell)
- Clerkas Clerk
- (uncredited)
- Prizefighteras Prizefighter
- (uncredited)
- Grand Jury Womanas Grand Jury Woman
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Seton I. Miller(screen play) (story)
- Martin Mooney(story)
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
- All cast & crew
Storyline
- Taglines
- WHO Rules The Rackets ? This picture puts the finger on the political higher-ups!
- Genres
- Certificate
- Passed
- Parents guide
Did you know
- TriviaIn the film, it is suggested that Joan Blondell's character got the idea of the numbers racket from her assistant, "Nellie". In reality, the numbers racket was pioneered by black gambling racketeers in Harlem. The "Nellie" character was based on Stephanie "Madame Queen" St. Clair (Nellie scoffs at being called "Madam Nellie"). As in the film, the numbers racket was eventually taken over by Dutch Schultz and 'Lucky Luciano' (the Humphrey Bogart and Barton MacLane characters, respectively).
- GoofsEarly in the film while Johnny Blake (Robinson) is sitting at a table with Joan Blondell talking, one of the old "mugs" he'd sent to Sing Sing prison walks over to him and smarts off. Without standing, he kicks the mug in the leg and punches him to the floor. While leaning over and chastising the unconscious mug, you can see that Blake's (Robinson) hair has moved forward on the right side and is messed up. In the next shot, when he leans back up to the table to talk to Joan Blondell, his hair is perfectly neat and combed.
- Quotes
Lee Morgan: You're gonna take it away from Blake?
'Bugs' Fenner: Yeah.
Lee Morgan: Go ahead and take it.
[Bugs moves in for a long kiss and gets slapped by Lee]
Lee Morgan: The numbers game.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Breakdowns of 1936 (1936)
By this time, the Hays Code had come down on Hollywood for their glorification of the gangster; Warners had pulled a clever switch with "G" MEN (1935), where these same crimes were presented from the viewpoint of law enforcement officers (that film had also been helmed by this film's director, William Keighley, and starred another of the great genre actors, James Cagney). In this case, the narrative allowed Robinson as an undercover cop to still be involved in the criminal activity, and rise through the ranks as always, without taking active part in them: however, censorship of the time still dictated that his character had to die at the end (unless it was a way of showing the risk inherent in such police work). Interestingly, Keighley would return to a similar situation this time revolving around the F.B.I. many years later with the noir THE STREET WITH NO NAME (1948), which I've just watched as part of my ongoing tribute to Richard Widmark; having mentioned the noir, while I admire the vitality and raw power of the gangster films, their limited plot lines rather prevents them from having the same pull of the fatalistic thrillers often involving tortuous plots and where the protagonists apart from the dark city streets could be as much a private detective as the next man, but always gullible and at the mercy of a femme fatale...
To go back to BULLETS OR BALLOTS, the film is typically fast-moving it's not just the action that crackles but the dialogue as well and, while some of the edge of the very earliest gangster pictures, has been lost by way of repetition (and the standards of the Code), it's still a satisfactory and highly entertaining entry. For the record, two of the very best efforts in this influential genre were still a couple of years away namely ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938) and THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939), both with Cagney as an anti-hero and Bogie ever the irredeemable and duplicitous mobster. Here, alongside the two stars, are Joan Blondell as Robinson's on-off girl on whom Bogart has his eyes as well (interestingly, she's got her own particular racket going!), Barton MacLane as the big boss whom Bogart is forever trying to oust (again, a role he would often play) and Frank McHugh providing the comic relief (ditto).
- Bunuel1976
- Apr 14, 2008
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Wem gehört die Stadt?
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $8,605
- Runtime1 hour 22 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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