1930s and 1940s crime films

GANG BULLETS (1938). Running time 58 minutes.

There seems to be nothing that a town can do to stop Big Bill Anderson from his criminal activities. He has a bank account and the best lawyer money can buy. When he's being interviewed by the police he goes up to their wall chart to quote the various human rights on show. "Human rights to protect human rats" complains a policeman after Anderson has left the interview room.

Wayne is the DA that Anderson has got his eye on to further his dirty profits. Wayne gets all the press blame for the reign of terror that Anderson is perpetrating. The gang boss wants Wayne on his side and does a deal which is being recorded. Wayne is prepared to go to jail himself in order to trick Anderson. There are some good sequences showing criminal gang members carrying out the orders of their boss in order to keep Anderson in power over the town.

THE MYSTERY TRAIN (1931). Running time 63 minutes.

A handcuffed woman is aboard a train but people think that she doesn't look the type to mixed up in anything criminal. Meanwhile an upper social lady tells her lawyer that her stocks and shares are now worthless. They're aboard the same train which crashes. Marian the socialite escorts Joan the prisoner away from the wreck telling the inspection man that Joan is her niece. Marian has a motive for this act of kindness.

Marian needs Joan as bait for a man who has just inherited the Stanhope Estate including a very valuable diamond. Marian wants that diamond to get her out of financial difficulties. The action becomes much more exciting in the second train journey of the film. Two heavies are included in the stranded passengers on a runaway carriage that is heading for another crash.

THE DEVIL'S SLEEP (1949). Running time 71 minutes.

A town is suffering from an epidemic of juvenile delinquency. This is traced to Scalli who runs a gymnasium as a front to make real money from pill pushing. Teenagers are given Benzedrine tablets so they get hooked and fall under Scalli's criminal influence. Body training programs at the gymnasium gives an opportunity to sell weigh-reducing tablets illegally.

Judge Ballentine and Sgt Kerrigan team up to try and root out the problem of delinquency which is causing a crime wave in the town. The judge's daughter attends a party where one of Scalli's men manages to take a nude photo of her. This threatens to tie the Judge's hand in her efforts to clean up the town. Kerrigan's girlfriend infiltrates Scalli's organization to retrieve the negative of the nude photo. I would say this little picture is probably a social document of the time as the era of the teenager is about to get really going in the 1950s.

I'LL NAME THE MURDERER (1936). Running time 69 minutes.

Tommy Tilton writes a gossip column called 'Tattle-Tales.' He brags that he knows what's going on when a lot of the time he doesn't. He uses his column to bait a murderer to save his friend Ted Benson taking the blame. Ted goes to the bank to pay off a blackmailer who has some of his letters.

While Ted is at the bank Nadia the blackmailer is murdered in her dressing room. Nadia who sings at a cafe wants to get back some jewelry. So there are mixed motives and plenty of suspects when she gets killed. Tilton leaves a dummy in bed to see who will come to murder him after he sets the bait. This is a well-disguised whodunit so chances are you will not guess who the murderer is.

DANGER ON THE AIR (1938). Running time 66 minutes.

Caesar Kluck sponsors a hour-long radio show advertising his Popla drinks brand. He is found dead in the sponsor's room at the broadcasting studio. Dr Sylvester pronounces a heart attack as the cause of death. But a radio engineer is convinced that Kluck died from gas via the bursting of an advertising balloon.

The engineer joins forces with a female advertising agent to find the murderer. There is a manic voice belonging to a radio character known as The Shadow. An Italian father of Maria at the reception desk gets angry at Kluck for giving his daughter jewelry. The engineer finally gets all the suspects in a room and baits them with a balloon. Only the murderer will know that the balloon contains poisoned gas.

STAR REPORTER (1939). Running time 60 minutes.

A good crime story that involves a crooked defense lawyer. He gets criminals free and here he has a job of getting a first degree murder off a client. The client is Draper who has an interesting history that not even himself knows the full details. There are so many revelations during the course of the story.

Just about every character is compromised from telling the truth. The beacon of light is John Randolph of the Star Tribune. He is determined to make sure that justice prevails. But he isn't aware of what Draper means to him. To go any further is too much of a spoiler.

WHILE NEW YORK SLEEPS (1938). Running time 60 minutes.

This tells of a string of bond couriers getting bumped off during robberies. The Daily Chronicle reporter is Barney Callahan who goes after the story.

A lot of the story takes place at a club called Marco's. The owner Joe Marco is a practical joker who laughs a lot like The Joker from the 1960s as he pulls his pranks. But his last gag goes sour on him in his office at the club. There is a whole series of hoaxes that characters play in this including ones pulled by Barney. And all of them drive along the plot at speed.

Strangely all those gags don't make any of the characters really sympathetic. But it is quite a good crime story all the same.

A CLOSE CALL FOR BOSTON BLACKIE (1946). Running time 60 minutes.

Blackie gets framed for the murder of John Peyton who has just got out of prison. There is something suspicious about a baby in the room where the killing occurred. Peyton knew nothing of any baby and it's strange that his wife had been hiding it away for some reason. She disappears leaving Blackie and his sidekick holding the baby. Before long it becomes clear that the baby is being used in some sort of racket.

There are a number of disguises in the film. Blackie made up as an old man at one point. Then his sidekick finds it necessary to dress up in drag. Fortunately his girlfriend Mamie understands. There is one particular brutal killing by a character called Smiley.