***/**** Image A- Sound A- Extras B
starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane
screenplay by Seton I. Miller
directed by William Keighley
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover On evidence of three films I've recently screened (the others being G Men and Each Dawn I Die), I'd say that William Keighley is a sadly underrated director, if not quite an auteur. He's the kind of lively entertainer who'd trade drinks with solid studio craftsmen like Michael Curtiz. The fact that he doesn't rate a mention in the Sarris canon is a bit surprising to me: on evidence of those two films and Bullets or Ballots, he deserved at least a footnote in the Lightly Likable section. "Lightly likable" also sums up the charms of Bullets or Ballots, which doesn't offer much of the meat and bone of art but moves briskly, offers the occasional smart line, and schools its audience in the ABCs of crime and punishment in a manner befitting a Warners crime melodrama.
Key to Keighley's personality is the introduction of the pure-in-heart into an organization involved in either law or crime. Where G Men taught Cagney the value of an FBI that shoots back and Each Dawn I Die drops him innocent into the brutal stir, Bullets or Ballots serves as Racketeering 101 for Edward G. Robinson and an audience of millions. So after one of those cumbersome openings in which we're informed that bullets must be fought with ballots (a nonsensical dictum the movie never really demonstrates), crusading newspaperman Ward Bryant (Henry O'Niell) is gunned down in cold blood by "Bugs" Fenner (Humphrey Bogart, the perennially doomed mobster), necessitating an infiltration of his racket. Enter Det. Johnny Blake (Robinson), whom we're led to believe is a disgraced cop but soon turns out to be the law's inside man.
The whole thing is, of course, contrived to flip over the gangster film for the Code era, a trick Keighley achieves by sending his risk-taking policeman deep undercover to show us how Crime Does Not (or Should Not) Pay. As with G Men and Each Dawn I Die, there's a woman to complicate things–in this case Joan Blondell, playing independent numbers-runner Lee Morgan. Her outfit is encroached upon when her friend Blake ruins the other rackets and needs a new shtick to buy him time to locate the boss-men. But the centrepiece of the film is where Blake is led through the main room of his syndicate's numbers racket, with its scads of thugs pouring out cash and stuffing receipts into baskets. It's a descent into Hell that's not terribly disturbing thanks to the director's convivial approach to male interaction, which finds Blake on friendly terms with everyone save cold sociopath Fenner.
Still, one wouldn't want this film to be especially upsetting. Keighley's universe was one of men enjoying each other's company in adverse conditions: there's all manner of elbow-rubbing in G Men, while Each Dawn I Die is predicated on the trust between brothers behind bars. Bullets or Ballots has a civilized, nice-guy ganglord in Al Kruger (Barton MacLaine), with whom Blake can seem to have peers; the film conveys the horror of crime partly through the scheming and murderous Fenner's usurpation of this lovable man. In fact, there's generally not much gunplay in Bullets or Ballots, so concerned is it with men doing business while Rome burns around them. One can't suss out real artistic concerns within the director's personality, yet one can certainly expect certain comforts–and those comforts are to me sweet enough to insist on a little more respect for Mr. Keighley.
THE DVD
Warner brings Bullets or Ballots to DVD in a fine presentation. The full-frame transfer has its print problems (there are occasional blotchy passages that suggest negative damage), but for the most part the image is crisp, bright, and well-defined. Though some tinniness mars the soundtrack, the Dolby 1.0 mono audio is likewise acceptable. Extras are as follows:
Commentary by Dana Polan
A truly outstanding yak-track from the NYU scholar: he's as adept with the vagaries of Warner's business practice as he is in dealing with the sociological ramifications of its hard-interventionist stance on crime. It's informed, complex, and a model of the form.
"Gangsters: The Immigrant's Hero" (20 mins.)
An OK if not brilliant primer on the world of the Hollywood gangster, from the archetype's relationship to the American dream to the pair of Robinson and Cagney. More for neophytes rather than for seasoned film-watchers.
"How I Play Golf by Bobby Jones, #10: Difficult Shots" (10 mins.)
Joe E. Brown bets Robinson that he can beat Bobby Jones; this facilitates a discussion of how to play shots in the rough, sand traps, water traps, etc. No Stroke of Genius, this.
"Breakdowns of 1936" (9 mins.)
More of your favourite Warners stars fluff their lines and curse–there're even bloopers from Bullets or Ballots.
4/16/1939 Lux Theater Broadcast (59 mins.)
This is a lot less awkward than many of these screen-to-radio performances, though there's the sense that the production is coasting formally when it ought to be competing with the image. Robinson and Bogart return with Mary Astor taking over for Blondell, and the performances are quite good.
"The Warner Night at the Movies" viewing option meanwhile breaks down thusly:
The Charge of the Light Brigade Trailer (2 mins.)
Errol Flynn at the Khyber pass. Sort of amusing for its title screens announcing THE CHARGE… THE CHARGE… THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE!
Newsreel (2 mins.)
The craziest news items of 1936, including an award for the largest family in Canada to a man-powered flying machine that doesn't actually fly.
"George Hall and His Orchestra" (10 mins.)
The eponymous big-band orchestra is forced to sleep in the theatre where they're supposed to audition–and rehearse. This is nominally entertaining right up until the black-stereotype hobo shows up and the group contrives to scare him away.
I'm a Big Shot Now (7 mins.)
The rise and fall of a Blue Jay gangster, who crows of being a big shot until the bird police crack down. Cute, but not much more.
Bullets or Ballots is available individually or as part of Warner's "Tough Guys Collection".
82 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 1.0; CC; English, French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Warner
