Bullets or Ballots (1936) - film review

New York newspaper publisher Ward Bryant embarks on a one-man crusade against the racketeers who are, in his belief, wrecking the moral fabric of his country.  One crook who isn’t prepared to tolerate Bryant’s interference in his lucrative activities is trigger-happy mobster Bugs Fenner, who fills him with lead one evening.  Bryant’s death triggers an immediate police crackdown, led by the newly appointed Commissioner McLaren.  Honest cop Johnny Blake is fired for inefficiency and ends up being recruited by gangster boss Al Kruger.  Fenner is immediately suspicious of the ex-cop but Blake proves his worth by setting up a lottery that proves to be the gang’s most lucrative enterprise.  What neither Fenner nor Kruger know is that Blake is working undercover to expose the men who are behind the town’s crime syndicate...

Having played a host of hardboiled gangsters and decidely nasty villains in a dozen or so films, Edward G. Robinson finally gets to play the good guy, and do so with great elan and conviction in this superlative noirish crime drama.  This is the film in which he first appeared apposite another screen icon, Humphrey Bogart, who, like Robinson previously, had become typecast in tough gangster roles.  The two men would appear together in four more films, including the classic Key Largo (1948), in which their roles are reversed, in more ways than one.

Bullets or Ballots is the classic 1930s American gangster movie, developed from a story (based on factual events) by real-life crime reporter Martin Mooney.  The film is directed with great flair by William Keighley, a highly regarded filmmaker whose other notable credits include G Men (1935) and The Prince and the Pauper (1937).  Cinematographer Hal Mohr does an excellent job, effectively using lighting and unusual camera angles (a precursor to what we now term the film noir style) to build atmosphere and tension.  Mohr is perhaps best known for his work on the classic horror film Phantom of the Opera (1943).

Whilst the film offers few surprises, it is meticulously crafted and superbly played by a cast of very talented performers.  Robinson is the perfect casting choice for the ambiguous character Blake, combining the toughness of his earlier gangster roles with a gentleness and nobility that was much closer to his off-screen persona.   Those who have only seen Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942) and his subsequent films will be shocked to see the actor in this film convincingly playing a psychopathic killer with no redeeming features whatsoever.  With his intense brooding look and the staccato way in which he belts out his  hate-filled lines, Bogart is the definitive screen hoodlum, and here he is at his villainous best.  With so much going for it, Bullets or Ballots can hardly fail to be a rewarding and stylish example of its genre.

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