Years ago, Ritzie (Fay Wray) has been the moll of gangster Thunderbolt
(George Bancroft), but she has long come clean and become engaged to bank
clerk Moran (Richard Arlen). However, the police are still shadowing her,
expecting her to be the key to Thunderbolt's whereabouts, so they
apprehend her occasionally and even see to it that Moran loses his job. Fact
us, Thunderbolt does want Ritzie back, and wants to abduct her from her
fiancé's apartment ... but a soft spot he has for a stray dog somehow
leads him right into the arms of the police instead, and before you know
it, he's put on death row. On death row, he saves the warden's (Tully
Marshall) life, so he's at least allowed the stray dog (who somehow put
him there but whom he's grown attached to). Somehow though, he has found a
way to make his gang frame Moran for a murder, and before you know it, he
lands on death row, too, and in the cell directly opposite Thunderbolt's.
Furthermore, Moran is to be executed ahead of Thunderbolt, so he will have
his revenge for Moran "stealing" his girlfriend after all. But
when he sees Ritzie marrying Moran only hours before the execution, he
grows soft and admits the set-up ... but that might just be a ruse, so he
can murder Moran himself the next day when he bids him farewell when he's
sent to the chair. And he already prepares to when he learns that it
wasn't Moran who has stolen Ritzie from him but the other way round, and
Ritzie has only returned to Moran after she could stand the life with
Thunderbolt no more ... First of all, this is an early sound
film, so everthing seems a bit wooden and stagey here (due to this new
medium sound), and silent film mannerisms still shine through. But even
with that in mind, the film comes across as rather light-footed
(considering its very dramatic narrative), moves at a decent pace and is
rather elegantly filmed. The story of course is anything but free of
clichées, but at least it's told well. In all, not exactly a masterpiece,
but a pretty decent gangster melodrama nevertheless.
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