Bullets for Ballots

Bullets for Ballots.
1936 Warner Bros.-First National Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh, Joseph King
Director: William Keighley
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the Warner Gangsters Collection, Volume 2 (Formerly Tough Guys).

It's another "Warner Night at the Movies" presentation, which is an option available for viewing on this DVD. If you were alive in 1936, and wanted to go see Bullets for Ballots, here's what you would've been treated to at your local cinema:

* A trailer for The Charge of the Light Brigade, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and David Niven. Warner Bros. dubbed this one an "epic re-release". I'm sure it was back in '36. (Available for sale at Amazon here, or as a single DVD)
* Crazy Newsreel: Two "news of the weird" features in under three minutes, covering a Canadian family who won nearly a million dollars from an eccentric millionaire for having fifteen children, tiger cubs in an incubator, and a flying bicycle contraption that never gets airborne.
* George Hall and His Orchestra, a short film featuring aforementioned orchestra, as they're unable to secure lodging at a hotel, so they move into a condemned building for the night. They rehearse some numbers, and scare the wits out of a drunken intruder who stumbles in. There's also some humor that can definitely be construed as racist today.
* I'm a Big Shot Now, directed by Friz Freleng, 1936. Cartoon time! In Birdville, the citizens all go about their business until a gangster stereotype bluebird sings the title song before wreaking havoc. Birdville's crack police force get to work, complete with a car chase, a shootout, and the bird criminal locked up, and woefully singing "I'm just a jailbird now". Tough break, kid.
* Main feature:

Edward G. Robinson is detective Johnny Blake, who goes undercover in a New York City mob, befriending a gangster named Al Kruger (MacLane), who is the subject of a recent movie about racketeering produced by a newspaperman named Ward Bryant (Henry O'Neill). Bryant has turned up murdered, and Kruger's partner, Nick Fenner (Bogart) is suspected of the crime. Blake is fired from the police force, and he later gets into an altercation with a police captain, Dan MacLaren (King) at a boxing match.

Blake quickly gains the trust of Kruger, although Fenner begins to rightfully suspect that Blake is secretly tipping off the police, and it's inevitable that both men are headed for a violent showdown. Who will survive?

The DVD also includes as an extra the Lux Theater radio broadcast featuring Robinson, Bogart, and Mary Astor in Joan Blondell's role, which first was aired on April 16th, 1939. As for the film, it's a recommended movie with an excellent transfer to DVD.