1938's "Gang Bullets" shows that Monogram could occasionally compete with Warners' crime dramas, though on a noticeably smaller budget and less action. At the same time Boris Karloff began his 'Mr. Wong' series, the studio's modest ambitions show in this gritty expose of crime boss Morgan Wallace, against crusading District Attorney Charles Trowbridge, with top billing awarded former Warners starlet Anne Nagel, best remembered for her work at Universal in "Black Friday" and "Man Made Monster" (one of her last roles came in Monogram's Charlie Chan entry "The Trap," wearing a fetching bathing suit). After playing the surprise killer in "Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo," Robert Kent was back on the right side of the law, soon starring opposite Bela Lugosi in the 1939 serial "The Phantom Creeps." Morgan Wallace usually played villains, as he soon would in "Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation," before his memorable encounter with W. C. Fields in "My Little Chickadee."
Review of Gang Bullets
