Today, when we see actors like Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino jump from playing a bad guy to a good guy, we hardly bat an eye. After all, it IS Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino. But in those olden days of Hollywood, if you were a bad guy, you would always play the bad guy. That's one of the reasons why "Bullets Or Ballots" is so incredible. It features Edward G. Robinson, famous for playing gangsters in films like "Little Caesar", playing a good guy. And that's just one of the interesting, not to mention entertaining, aspects of this movie.
When this movie was released in 1936, America was going through a social shift. During the Prohibition Era of the 1920's, gangsters were romanticized as urban "Robin Hoods" (Personified in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby") because they sold beer to a thirsty public who did not support the Prohibition laws. But after the bloody rampage of the Roaring 20's gang wars of men like Al Capone, "Dutch" Schultz, and The Purple Gang, and the Depression Era Bank Robbing sprees of John Dillinger, "Babyface" Nelson, and "Machine Gun" Kelly, America had had enough of the gangsters. Sensing the social shift, Warner Brothers stopped making movies about the gangster (more or less) and started making movies celebrating the cops and federal agents who battled the mob. The first of these films was "G-Men" starring James Cagney as an FBI agent in 1935. "Bullets Or Ballots" came next.
In the film, Edward G. Robinson portrays Johnny Blake, and Eliot Ness-like gang buster in the NYPD. Blake is such a good cop that not only is he admired by his fellow cops but he's also respected by the mob. While that may seem a little corny, it turns out to be very poignant in the end. When a wave of reform sweeps the city with the appointment of a new, honest, grand jury, and an honest police chief, Blake finds himself kicked off the force on a trumped up charge of "derilection of duty". Blake is then offered a job as the "chief of security" by New York mobster Al Kruger (Barton MacLane in another tough guy roll). Kruger wants Blake to use his police know-how to make sure the rackets are running smoothly and cannot be dismantled by the new reform movement. Because of that afore mentioned respect Kruger and the other mobsters have for Blake, the former cop moves into the organization with ease, despite being kept under the watchful eye of "Bugs" Fenner (a pre-fame Humphrey Bogart in a cookie-cutter thug roll he would be stuck playing before his breakthrough in "Casablanca"), a gangster who is still suspicious of Blake. Johnny's new position also puts him at odds with many of his former friends in the police department as well as his girlfriend, Lee (Joan Blondell) who runs an independent gambling racket out of her nightclub. But little do they know, and "Bugs" Fenner rightfully suspects, Johnny Blake has not turned bad...he's still working for the police as an undercover officer! In a clever ruse developed by Blake and the new police chief, Blake has faked getting thrown off the force in order to infiltrate the crime syndicate and collapse it from within.
This is an exciting movie with the right balance of twists, turns, drama, action, and even humor (With the inclusion gangland comic relief Frank McHugh), making it an movie sadly over looked when mentioning the great gangster pictures of the era. The only part of this film I didn't like was the cringe-worthy portrayal of African Americans in this film. In the movie, there is a woman named Nellie who runs the gambling racket for Lee out of her club. She's of the grossly stereotypical "Yessah, Miss Lee" ignorant blacks. Unfortunately, this type of character was considered "acceptable" by film making standards in those days and is my only reason for not giving one of my all-time favorite gangster movies a full 10 stars.
When this movie was released in 1936, America was going through a social shift. During the Prohibition Era of the 1920's, gangsters were romanticized as urban "Robin Hoods" (Personified in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby") because they sold beer to a thirsty public who did not support the Prohibition laws. But after the bloody rampage of the Roaring 20's gang wars of men like Al Capone, "Dutch" Schultz, and The Purple Gang, and the Depression Era Bank Robbing sprees of John Dillinger, "Babyface" Nelson, and "Machine Gun" Kelly, America had had enough of the gangsters. Sensing the social shift, Warner Brothers stopped making movies about the gangster (more or less) and started making movies celebrating the cops and federal agents who battled the mob. The first of these films was "G-Men" starring James Cagney as an FBI agent in 1935. "Bullets Or Ballots" came next.
In the film, Edward G. Robinson portrays Johnny Blake, and Eliot Ness-like gang buster in the NYPD. Blake is such a good cop that not only is he admired by his fellow cops but he's also respected by the mob. While that may seem a little corny, it turns out to be very poignant in the end. When a wave of reform sweeps the city with the appointment of a new, honest, grand jury, and an honest police chief, Blake finds himself kicked off the force on a trumped up charge of "derilection of duty". Blake is then offered a job as the "chief of security" by New York mobster Al Kruger (Barton MacLane in another tough guy roll). Kruger wants Blake to use his police know-how to make sure the rackets are running smoothly and cannot be dismantled by the new reform movement. Because of that afore mentioned respect Kruger and the other mobsters have for Blake, the former cop moves into the organization with ease, despite being kept under the watchful eye of "Bugs" Fenner (a pre-fame Humphrey Bogart in a cookie-cutter thug roll he would be stuck playing before his breakthrough in "Casablanca"), a gangster who is still suspicious of Blake. Johnny's new position also puts him at odds with many of his former friends in the police department as well as his girlfriend, Lee (Joan Blondell) who runs an independent gambling racket out of her nightclub. But little do they know, and "Bugs" Fenner rightfully suspects, Johnny Blake has not turned bad...he's still working for the police as an undercover officer! In a clever ruse developed by Blake and the new police chief, Blake has faked getting thrown off the force in order to infiltrate the crime syndicate and collapse it from within.
This is an exciting movie with the right balance of twists, turns, drama, action, and even humor (With the inclusion gangland comic relief Frank McHugh), making it an movie sadly over looked when mentioning the great gangster pictures of the era. The only part of this film I didn't like was the cringe-worthy portrayal of African Americans in this film. In the movie, there is a woman named Nellie who runs the gambling racket for Lee out of her club. She's of the grossly stereotypical "Yessah, Miss Lee" ignorant blacks. Unfortunately, this type of character was considered "acceptable" by film making standards in those days and is my only reason for not giving one of my all-time favorite gangster movies a full 10 stars.