Customer Reviews

Bullets or Ballots

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Edward G. Robinson stars as a cop dedicated to getting rid of gangsters running rackets. When he is fired, he winds up taking a job with crime boss Barton MacLane, against the wishes of MacLane's number one man, Humphrey Bogart. MacLane wants Robinson to make his organization foolproof against the police. When they start having more interference from the police, people in the organization start questioning Robinson's trustworthiness, especially trigger-happy Bogart. This is a tough film, trying to address the problem of gangsters after Prohibition ended. Robinson, MacLane, and Joan Blondell as Robinson's disappointed girlfriend all turn in terrific performances, while Bogart contributes yet another of his bad guy jobs that he did so often until he became a star. I liked the perspective in this gangster film, which focused more on what the law was doing to end the problem, rather than simply giving us the story from only the gangsters' point of view. It's one of Warner Brother's least well known crime films, but it definitely deserves a look.

B or B is one of the movies made as a response to the alleged glorification of mobsters portrayed in others such as Public Enemy, Little Caesar and Scarface. This may be categorized with such films as I Am the Law, Manhattan Melodrama and G Men, where law enforcement officers and public officials were shown as the ones to be idolized.

So it's preachy. Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating gangsterism. But it's not skillfully done here. The points are driven home thru semi-documentary style narration or plot-halting on-screen explanations, rather than subtly through incident and dialogue. The story starts slow, with the main events not beginning until we are nearly a third of the way in. The direction is only adequate. And it badly needed music to propel things forward.

The plot is hoary, but yet retains some interest. Robinson is fired from the force as part of the Commissioner's plan to get him in with the racketeers and break them from within, by tipping the police off as to their activities. But to really deal the rackets a blow Robinson must find out who the top guys are, men few ever see. And he must avoid the suspicions of the the trigger-happy Bogart and his allies.

I love movies from this era: there are cool cars, fedoras and pinstripes, tough talk (though not enough), and a couple of nifty studio sets to be seen here. But there are also some really dated things about it, including a couple of fistfights only Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson could be proud of. What's more, the internal dynamics of the gang are never too believable, so suspense surrounding Robinson's tenuous situation is slight. And not to make light of what was a serious problem (and may still be in some locales), but there is something less than fearsome about Bogey running the milk and produce rackets. I mean, slicing a tomato and putting it in someone's bed just doesn't have the same brutal panache. (Kidding, I'm Kidding!)

The ending is good but not to the degree it could've been: it's too small in scope and rather polite. Still, Robinson's performance after he is shot by Bogart elevates at least these closing scenes to near-great status.

Finally, the movie misses opportunities for comment on how the law to do its job must sometimes be much like the lawbreakers. The moral complexity of Robinson's machinations (which directly lead to the murder of the kingpin, a man he grudgingly respected) is shown only by him crumpling a newspaper in the back of a cab. The paradox of injustices done in the name of justice is much better examined in a movie like Anthony Mann's noir great T-Men.

Overall somewhat disappointing, but worth a Thursday night rental for fans of the genre or the cast.

See also: The movies aforementioned; The Roaring 20's.

"Bullets or Ballots" (1936) features Edward G. Robinson in one of his best tough-guy roles as an undercover cop who infiltrates the New York rackets. This solid Warner crime drama also serves as a good vehicle for Humphrey Bogart as the untrusting, trigger-happy gangster. Not much action, per se, but director William Keighley keeps the pot boiling - climaxed by a memorable confrontation between Eddie G. and Bogey. The DVD includes a "Breakdowns of 1936" blooper reel with outtakes from "Bullets or Ballots" (watch for the brief moment in which Robinson needs technical support to handle a gun).

Bullets or Ballots is a good gangster film set in the later 1930s which helps to explain their existence after Prohibition. Edward G. Robinson plays Johnny, a veteran of the police force whose unpopular methods leave him with nowhere to turn but to the gangsters who want him on their side. Humphrey Bogart plays a gangster who feels his position is being threatened and who serves to make trouble throughout the film. Joan Blondell plays Leigh, a pretty girl who is close friends with Johnny.

Robinson plays his decent character very well, but not particularly notably. Bogart's character is childish and headstrong and he plays the part well, a variation on his many gangster parts. Blondell is less pretty here than in her pre-code films and she dons many low cut dresses perhaps to compensate.

One of the most notable parts of this film is the incredibly sexy kiss between Bogart and Blondell.

"Bullets or Ballots" (1936) stars a bevy of Warner Bros. biggest stars of the 30s -Edward G Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Blondell, and Frank McHugh.

Even before "Little Caesar" (1931), Edward G. Robinson made a name for himself in early gangster films like "The Hole in the Wall" (1929), "Night Ride" (1930) and "Outside the Law" (1930), and on Broadway played a Capone-like gangster in "The Racket". With "Little Caesar" he became Warners' biggest star and Robinson would go on to play in 30 gangster films in a career that included 89 feature films (only Bogart exceeded him with 32 out of 79).

This film along with "Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" (1938) and "Brother Orchid" (1940) starred Robinson with Bogart as the bad guy. All 3 films involved transformation - "Ballots" had a detective become a criminal, "Orchid" has the gangster turn into a monk and "Clitterhouse" has the good doctor turn into a gangster. In a way, all 3 films were a reaction by Robinson to having done too many gangster films, and this was his way of showing his versatility. Robinson was such an important star at Warners that the brothers were happy to accommodate him.

FWIW - notice that Robinson the detective smokes a pipe while Robinson the gangster smokes a cigar. Robinson often used a pipe when he was playing non-gangster roles.

"Ballots" comes in the middle of Robinson's gangster era for Warners. The 1940s would see him expand with films like "The Sea Wolf" (1941), "Double Indemnity" (1944), "The Woman in the Window" (1945), "Scarlet Street" (1946) and "House of Strangers" (1949) and later he would do such notable films as "The Ten Commandments" (1956), "Hole in the Head" (1959), "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965), and "Soylent Green" (1973). He did one last gangster film in 1948, "Key Largo", in which Bogart was now the big star and, for a change, Robinson gets killed by Bogie.

This was the first teaming of Robinson and Bogart, who would play second fiddle to both Robinson ("Kid Galahad", "Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse") and Cagney ("The Roaring Twenties", "The Oklahoma Kid", "Angels with Dirty Faces", "Dead End"), but in 1941 Bogart starred in "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon" and from that point onward, Bogart became a big name star, eventually surpassing Cagney and Robinson in 1943 on the tail of his performance in "Casablanca". Here he is still under the radar as the cheap hoodlum billed fourth (behind Barton MacLane), although this same year he released his breakout film "The Petrified Forest".

Other cast members include Barton MacLane (1902-69) playing a heavy (what else is new?), Frank McHugh for comic relief, and Joan Blondell (1906-79) as a love interest.

MacLane is best remembered as the General from "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965-70). McHugh's chubby face appeared in more than 100 films including "The Roaring Twenties" (1939), "Virginia City" (1940), "Mighty Joe Young" (1949). In the 50s he turned to TV where he appeared in dozens of shows. Joan Blondell usually portrayed a wise cracking sex symbol ("Maggie the Magnificent", "Public Enemy", "Blonde Crazy"), but she was capable of more serious roles in films like "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945) and "The Blue Veil" (1951) for which she was nominated for an Oscar. She was also nominated twice for an Emmy and twice for a Golden Globe.

The film is a little different from the run-of-the-mill gangster flick. There is an emphasis on the economic costs of crime and discussions of how crime spreads into new businesses (the numbers game in Harlem, penny arcade games next to schools). Also, this film focuses on "the big boys" who turn out to be bankers - the power behind the street criminals.

In 1936 Jean Harlow had 3 films in the top 20 - "Libeled Lady" (Spencer Tracy, William Powell, and Myrna Loy), "Wife vs. Secretary" (Gable and Loy), and "Suzy" (Cary Grant). The other big money winners were "San Francisco" (Gable), "The Great Ziegfeld" (Powell and Loy), "Modern Times" (Chaplin), and "Charge of the Light Brigade" (Flynn and de Havilland). The big Oscar winner was "The Great Ziegfeld" (Picture, Best Actress). Other notable films from that year were "The Petrified Forest" (Bogart), "Romeo and Juliette" (Shearer and Howard), "Dodsworth" (Walter Huston) and Fritz Lang's "Fury".

Bottom line - This certainly isn't one of the classic gangster films of the 30s ("Public Enemy", "Dead End", "Little Caesar", "The Roaring Twenties", "Angels with Dirty Faces", I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", "Scarface") but it's a well made film and stands out from the rest of the pack.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents "BULLETS OR BALLOTS" (1936) (82 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- Starring
Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane & Humphrey Bogart

Directed by William Keighley

"Bullets or Ballots" is a taut crime drama, showcasing Edward G. Robinson some five years following his breakout performance in "Little Caesar". He and Bogart would appear in five films altogether, "Key Largo" being the most highly acclaimed, and the only film in which Bogey would get top billing over Robinson. Edward G. plays a police detective who infiltrates a crime gang. There is really no love interest in this film; it's strictly a crime story. Robinson's character of John Blake is based on real life NYPD detective John Broderick.

Director William Keighley gave this film a fresh look for this genre and era.

Robinson and Bogart in a blazing showdown and an exciting finale, an unusual ending for this period in film history, but one which Robinson fought hard to retain and it works. Though the ending is melodramatic, Bullets or Ballots holds up pretty well today

BIOS:
1 William Keighley [Director]
Date of Birth: 4 August 1889 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date of Death: 24 June 1984 - New York City, New York

2. Edward G. Robinson [aka: Emmanuel Goldenberg]
Date of Birth: 12 December 1893 - Bucharest, Romania
Date of Death: 26 January 1973 - Hollywood, California

3. Humphrey Bogart
Date of Birth: 25 December 1899 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 14 January 1957 - Los Angeles, California

4. Joan Blondell {aka: Rose Joan Blondell]
Date of Birth: 30 August 1906 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 25 December 1979 - Santa Monica, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 3 Stars
Performance: 4 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 3 Stars
Overall: 3 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 82 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (07/18/2006)

Following his brutal portrayal in "The Petrified Forest," Bogart became a much more articulate and calculating killer in "Bullets or Ballots," a gangster thriller starring Edward G. Robinson as a crusading crime-buster, modeled after true-life cop Johnny Broderick, known as "the toughest cop on Broadway," who pretended to be thrown off the police force in order to infiltrate Bogart's gang and get the evidence to bring him to justice...

Bogart revealed no emotion whatever as he goes about his gun-happy chores of shooting a respected newspaperman as well as his partner-in-crime, Barton MacLane, in his characteristic double-cross...

The exciting finale found both Bogart and Robinson in a blazing showdown, an unusual ending for this period in film history, but one which Robinson had fought hard to retain...

William Keighley directed the film with a firm and fresh efficiency...

With the implementation of the Hays Code in 1934, Warner Brothers explored new ways of retaining the excitement of the pre code films while honouring the principle of not making the gangsters into heroes. The solution was to make their great stars switch sides so in this one, Edward G. Robinson is an ex-cop who infiltrates the mobs. The head of the racketeers is Barton MacLane who lacked Robinsons's star power and accordingly, the heavy is much less attractive.

The plot is more complex than most of these films with the introduction of the bankers and politicians who actually head the syndicates. Whether Robinson has turned crooked or not provides most of the suspense and he cleverly walks a fine line between good and evil. His character is a loner and the film is dominated by the relationships between the men. It is also not as fast moving as others films in the genre where actions speak louder than words.

Joan Blondell has a small part as a smart business woman who runs the "numbers game" and invests it with more depth than she was often given the opportunity to do. Her two encounters with Humphrey Bogart, typecast as a violent but very suave racketeer, are memorable. Her sidekick is Louise Beavers who transcends black stereotypes and plays a woman of resource and intelligence. The presence of Blondell implies a romance but Robinson's loner avoids a relationship with her in a couple of touching scenes.

The DVD is chock full of worthwhile extras including an interesting documentary on the immigrant in the gangster film, an amusing short film on golf with Joe E Brown, Douglas Fairbanks Junior and Edward G Robinson himself, a Vitaphone cartoon with the signature detailed drawings and rollicking music, a musical short and a very funny newsreel item. There is also one of those blooper shorts from the Warner Brothers Films of 1936. If you know your Warner's films, these are always good fun to see. The commentary attached to the film itself is analytical to the point of boredom - a bit like a university thesis on the film's plot and script. The commentator misses the opportunity to say much about the players and the sheer entertainment value of the Warners product. Incidentally, the print of the film itself is outstanding, particularly preserving the superb lighting.

The DVD is excellent value particularly if it is purchased as part of the Warner's Tough Guys Collection.

BULLETS OR BALLOTS is a well constructed "law and order" vs. the "mob" gangster film. Credit has to be given to Edward G. Robinson for his sincere performance as undercover cop Johnny Blake who pretends to go bad and Seton I. Miller's well conceived script for elevating this film above the ordinary gangster film. There is good and bad, black and white and a lot of gray area to the characters created for this film and that's what makes it so interesting. Robinson sees both sides and plays by his own set of ethics. This film also features Humphrey Bogart as the no good gangster Nick "Bugs" Fenner. However, Barton MacLane outshines him in an excellent performance as the local crime boss Al Kruger who counterbalances Robinson's character. This is one tough film and is very suspenseful and intelligently told.

I loved Humphrey Bogart in this one. He played his character very well. It is so hard for me to name my fave Bogart film because Bogie is such a great actor, he does all his roles superb. He did a good job in this one too as "Fenner". The scene between him and the numbers girl (towards the end - where he says he is going to take over the numbers game from "Blake")(sorry i forget her name) is classic. I love that scene. Many great scenes in the movie if you are a Bogart fan.

Edward G. Robinson also acted great, but i think his best role was in the movie "The Sea Wolf" - i wish they had that one on DVD.

If you are a fan of the old gangster movies, you won't be disappointed if you watch this film. I only wish it could of starred Cagney as well. I love Cagney.