Salute to Two Fine Character Actors

Eduardo Cianelli as the Guru and Abner Biberman as young Toad Face were great here, and two of the best character actors in Hollywood. Outside of this film Cianelli is best remembered from the film Marked Woman as the gangster Johnny Vanning who beats up Bette Davis. Biberman is probably best remembered as Humphrey Bogart's sidekick, Lefty, in The Roaring Twenties, who agrees to support him when he double crosses Jimmy Cagney. Even there Biberman, as Rodney Dangerfield would say, gets no respect. Both here and in the TCM cast lists, even though he is called Lefty more than once in the movie, he is listed simply as Henchman.

Also in this movie Cianelli is sometimes called Guruji. This adding of Ji to an Indian name is a sign of respect, designating one as an important man. Kind of like mafia bosses being called Don So and so.