Dir.: Frank Tuttle
Plot: Erm... much the same as the more famous 1942 remake. A semi-corrupt politician sparks a gang war, and his trusty lieutenant has to navigate both sides in order to save his boss' career and, increasingly, his own life.
George Raft might not really have been able to act (even at the time, NY Times critic Andre Sennwald remarked that Raft success here was due to his being 'happily cast in a rôle which allows him to be sinister and suave without making excessive demands on his talent') but he could look great just standing around. If you saw nothing but stills of him, you would probably think he was a terrific actor. In what is probably his best role, as ill-fated sidekick Little Boy in the original Scarface (1932), he barely utters more than a few terse lines. And yet the scene in which he first meets Tony's sister, watching her at her window whilst tossing a coin, is one of my favourites in the whole movie. Here, for instance, he has all the thoughtful intensity of Spencer Tracy, but when he opens his mouth, it's the same old Raft.
