A hair-curling thriller vibrant with the pulse of the underworld, asparkle with the glamour of the New York night clubs.
1929-04-20
N/A
91 min
Chick Williams, a prohibition gangster, rejoins his mob soon after being released from prison. When a policeman is murdered during a robbery, he falls under suspicion. The gangster took Joan, a policeman's daughter, to the theater, sneaked out during the intermission to commit the crime, then used her to support his alibi. The detective squad employs its most sophisticated and barbaric techniques, including planting an undercover agent in the gang, to bring him to justice.
Regis Toomey ("McGann") steals this otherwise rather humdrum gangster flick - and that's largely because he is drunk for most of it. Otherwise, "Chick Williams" - the not very menacing moniker attributed to Chester Morris is released from jail and picks up where he left off - with his prohibitionist mob. When a cop is shot dead during a robbery, he falls under suspicion - but he has an alibi in the form of "Joan" (Eleanor Griffith) and some theatre tickets! What let's this down rather, is that we know who did what to whom, we know the identity of the fifth columnist the police install in his gang, and thus almost all of the jeopardy is compromised right from the start. The presentation and most of the acting is very static and stage-bound, somewhat woodenly theatrical in it's style. It might have been better had it been made a few years earlier as a silent film as the dialogue adds very little to this average crime caper.
