Rent Bullets or Ballots (1936)
3.6 of 5 from 64 ratings
1h 18min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
"They rule by the fear of their guns. They must be stopped by the power of your ballots". They refers to Bugs Fenner and other mobsters whose illicit rackets will be smashed to smithereens by undercover cop Johnny Blake. When Warner Bros.' Depression-era gangster movies began to draw protests, the studio reinvigorated the genre with stories emphasizing law enforcers instead of lawbreakers. The swift, sturdy 'Bullets or Ballots' reflects that, with Edward G. Robinson (as Blake) siding with the good guys for the first time in a gangland saga. Humphrey Bogart plays the short-fused Fenner. And Joan Blondell and Louise Beavers, in an unusual story element for the times, are thriving numbers operators whose grift is usurped by the mob. - Actors:
- Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh, Joe King, Dick Purcell, George E. Stone, Joseph Crehan, Henry O'Neill, Henry Kolker, Gilbert Emery, Herbert Rawlinson, Louise Beavers, Norman Willis
- Directors:
- William Keighley
- Producers:
- Louis F. Edelman
- Writers:
- Seton I. Miller, Martin Mooney
- Studio:
- Warner
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
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Reviews (1) of Bullets or Ballots
Final Collection - Bullets or Ballots review by CH
“Let's go to work!” The phrase is of course associated with Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. Was he, though, as an assiduous viewer, alluding to Bullets or Ballots (1936)? The phrase is uttered by one of a bunch of gangsters who command numerous rackets, including the pinball machines which they foist upon a café owner as the pupils at the opposite school will not be able to resist it.
A politician who vows to stop all this is felled by Humphrey Bogart, whose maverick behaviour shows that the gang is riven while only one of them knows the sleekly respectable-looking Mr. Bigs behind it all.
How will Edward G. Robinson be able to enforce the law and prevent the series of front pages which were, of course, such a rapid-fire part of these fast-moving Warner Brothers movies?
Capably directed by William Keighley, it is well done, “a good gangster film of the second class”, as Graham Greene said at the time - and added that Robinson's mouth was “more than ever like a long slit in a pillar-box”. One might wonder how much Greene's watching of such films influenced Brighton Rock, a feature of which is those who stand aloof from slugfests while gaining from them.
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