The gangster is a popular archetype in pre-Code films not just because of their dastardly milieu, but because an impoverished public admired their lavish lifestyle and shared their disdain for institutions that ground down the "little people". When young engaged couple Annabelle and Tommy (Marian Nixon and William Janney) are victims of a hold-up, Tommy fights back, thus earning the respect of the big boss (director Lowell Sherman), a suave dandy in tie and tails who warns "Now when I'm running this outfit you'll lay off the gunplay". But when jealous gang member Rocky (Hugh Trevor) frames the new recruits for a murder, everything unravels. A remake of the Samuel Shipman and John B. Hyman play "Crime", this picture joins other pre-Code movies like Thunderbolt (1929) and Good Intentions (1930) depicting gangsters as sentimental heroes.

By Violet LeVoit