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I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"Bullets or Ballots" is a good 'cops and robbers' movie from Warner Bros., headquarters for gangster pictures in the 30's. It has all the gangster stars on the lot - Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, George E. Stone, Barton McLane and a score of well-known character actors. It also features Joan Blondell, everybody's sweetheart in Warner films of the time.The 'racket' here switches from protection to the numbers game, and has Robinson as a racketbuster cop going undercover to unearth McLane's bosses. Robinson is a tough cop with the underworld's respect, although it is humorous to see him intimidate guys a foot taller than he is. Anyway, he infiltrates and the story unfolds in the expected manner, but as only Warner Bros. could tell it. Not a lot different from others of its type but the flashy cast puts this one over. If you haven't seen it and you are a fan of the genre, do so.

So I'm four feet tall, fat and ugly, but I'm the toughest guy on the force, see? And my name is Johnny Blake, only I look more like Immanuel Blakenstein, get it? Jack Warner told me I can't play gangsters any more, so now I'm a cop. A fat, ugly, four foot tall cop who looks like a clown air-punching guys twice my size. Then I get canned from the force, see? But really I'm going undercover, and I'm really a good cop who's out to shut down the rackets. It's okay, my old pal Bogart is playing the second banana hood, and the two of us have a shoot out at the end. I don't really point my gun, I just close my eyes and shoot in the air, and then you see him fall. This ain't KEY LARGO, kids.But say, what the hell! Bogart got me too. So then my best girl picks me up in her car, and we spend about ten minutes talking about how our love was meant to be, and all the while I'm gut shot. You can see on my face, I'm in pain, only it really looks like I've got gas. Gas, get me? Like I've been eating too much pompano, and mixing it with champagne. Or maybe I ate too much of that new Soylent product, Soylent Green. Now that's a picture! BULLETS OR BALLOTS is the kind of movie that makes a guy want to go to the Exchange, and tell them all about Soylent. And then go home.

Today, when we see actors like Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino jump from playing a bad guy to a good guy, we hardly bat an eye. After all, it IS Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino. But in those olden days of Hollywood, if you were a bad guy, you would always play the bad guy. That's one of the reasons why "Bullets Or Ballots" is so incredible. It features Edward G. Robinson, famous for playing gangsters in films like "Little Caesar", playing a good guy. And that's just one of the interesting, not to mention entertaining, aspects of this movie.When this movie was released in 1936, America was going through a social shift. During the Prohibition Era of the 1920's, gangsters were romanticized as urban "Robin Hoods" (Personified in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby") because they sold beer to a thirsty public who did not support the Prohibition laws. But after the bloody rampage of the Roaring 20's gang wars of men like Al Capone, "Dutch" Schultz, and The Purple Gang, and the Depression Era Bank Robbing sprees of John Dillinger, "Babyface" Nelson, and "Machine Gun" Kelly, America had had enough of the gangsters. Sensing the social shift, Warner Brothers stopped making movies about the gangster (more or less) and started making movies celebrating the cops and federal agents who battled the mob. The first of these films was "G-Men" starring James Cagney as an FBI agent in 1935. "Bullets Or Ballots" came next.In the film, Edward G. Robinson portrays Johnny Blake, and Eliot Ness-like gang buster in the NYPD. Blake is such a good cop that not only is he admired by his fellow cops but he's also respected by the mob. While that may seem a little corny, it turns out to be very poignant in the end. When a wave of reform sweeps the city with the appointment of a new, honest, grand jury, and an honest police chief, Blake finds himself kicked off the force on a trumped up charge of "derilection of duty". Blake is then offered a job as the "chief of security" by New York mobster Al Kruger (Barton MacLane in another tough guy roll). Kruger wants Blake to use his police know-how to make sure the rackets are running smoothly and cannot be dismantled by the new reform movement. Because of that afore mentioned respect Kruger and the other mobsters have for Blake, the former cop moves into the organization with ease, despite being kept under the watchful eye of "Bugs" Fenner (a pre-fame Humphrey Bogart in a cookie-cutter thug roll he would be stuck playing before his breakthrough in "Casablanca"), a gangster who is still suspicious of Blake. Johnny's new position also puts him at odds with many of his former friends in the police department as well as his girlfriend, Lee (Joan Blondell) who runs an independent gambling racket out of her nightclub. But little do they know, and "Bugs" Fenner rightfully suspects, Johnny Blake has not turned bad...he's still working for the police as an undercover officer! In a clever ruse developed by Blake and the new police chief, Blake has faked getting thrown off the force in order to infiltrate the crime syndicate and collapse it from within.This is an exciting movie with the right balance of twists, turns, drama, action, and even humor (With the inclusion gangland comic relief Frank McHugh), making it an movie sadly over looked when mentioning the great gangster pictures of the era. The only part of this film I didn't like was the cringe-worthy portrayal of African Americans in this film. In the movie, there is a woman named Nellie who runs the gambling racket for Lee out of her club. She's of the grossly stereotypical "Yessah, Miss Lee" ignorant blacks. Unfortunately, this type of character was considered "acceptable" by film making standards in those days and is my only reason for not giving one of my all-time favorite gangster movies a full 10 stars.

Okay, I'll admit that MOST of the Warner Brothers films of the 1930s starring actors like Cagney, Bogart and Edward G. Robinson were predictable and formulaic. But, they were also very entertaining and the public loved them. I happen to be a real fan of the films but know that they aren't exactly "high art" or always 100% believable! Well, this is such a film, as you really need to suspend disbelief and just sit back and enjoy--and boy, did I enjoy this dandy film.Robinson played a tough as nails detective who used to be a force to be reckoned with in the police department, but in recent years instead of smashing organized crime, he's been reassigned to more mundane activities. And, he's got REAL ATTITUDE, as when hoods see him on the street, he's likely to slug them if they don't show him "proper respect". At the same time, the grand jury is outraged by the proliferation of organized crime, so they appoint a new Police Commissioner. However, unexpectedly, this new Commissioner unexpectedly fires Robinson instead of having him return to his old mob-fighting ways! Now at this point, considering who Robinson's character was, it seemed obvious that his being fired was NOT "strictly on the level". Where this goes and how the movie wraps everything up, I'll leave to you.The acting is fun and exactly what you'd expect from an old gangster picture. The combination of Robinson, Barton MacLane and Bogart as the leads is exceptional and is sure to please, though I must admit that MacLane's character, at times, seems a bit stupid and gullible--he wasn't the best written character in the film.