With its penchant for stories torn from the headlines and recycled plots, only Warner Bros. could have made this 1940 gangster film. An early 1930s incident in which the police shut down a gambling ship operating beyond the three-mile limit had provided the story for Special Agent (1935), with George Brent as a crusading reporter out to convict gangster Ricardo Cortez with the help of Cortez's bookkeeper, Bette Davis. For the 1940 remake, Warner Bros. left nothing to the imagination with the title (it was originally to be called Floating Trouble) and went pure B-movie with the cast, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Wayne Morris is a brash and energetic reporter who actually manages to befriend gangster Gilbert Roland, a smooth operator if ever there was one. Roland never breaks a sweat, whether writing off a bribe for tax purposes or ordering the execution of a confederate who's about to squeal. As his secretary, a blonde Jane Wyman gets to drop wise cracks and fall for Roland long before she made the transition to become the studio's top dramatic star. Look closely for a bit by future Superman George Reeves as a reporter.

By Frank Miller