Review of Gang Bullets

When district attorney Charles Trowbridge finds himself in hot water due to mob money he was offered to drop a case, daughter Anne Nagel and her fiancee (Robert Kent), Trowbridge's assistant, go out of their way to prove how he was dragged into mob business against his will. Trowbridge is a decent man up to his neck in corruption, and it is actually his intention to blow the mob and rackets sky high simply by playing along with them. He's got his eye on the protection rackets, especially when a laundry owner is murdered and a young boy and his mother are held hostage by the racketeers. This ends up with a big court case where complex testimony brings the city to their knees as law and crime go up against each other, and the troubled relationship between Nagel and Kent finds itself in need of patching up when she begins to think that he has betrayed her father.

This takes a familiar plot and moves it into clever spots thanks to a smart screenplay that is filled with tension, wisdom and humor. The highlight of the film is the scene with the young boy daring to stand up to the mob to protect his mother, a scene which probably had the women in the audience cheering him on and wondering if their own sons would be as brave. Looking pretty lavish for a Monogram programmer, this features some memorable supporting performances, particularly by J. Farrell MacDonald and Joseph Crehan. This gets away with a bit more violence than most crime dramas, most likely overlooked by the production code who would probably have not let the bigger studios get away with what the filmmakers do here.