Public Hero Number 1

Early 1930s tabloids screamed out the nefarious activities of the Purple Gang, the Detroit mob that viciously controlled regional bootlegging and vice rackets. By 1935, when the Purple leadership had finally come to justice, Hollywood's gritty, hard-hitting answer to true events came in this rough-and-tumble (if fictionalized) action tale with a lineup of intriguing elements both likely (tough guys Chester Morris -- veteran of The Big House -- and Paul Kelly) and unlikely (leading lady Jean Arthur and the producing studio, glamour capital M-G-M). Morris plays an FBI agent, undercover in prison to gain the confidence of -- and bust out with -- the gang boss (Joseph Calleia in a chilling film debut). Following the break, a rain-swept road encounter with a spirited traveler (Arthur) reveals her unwitting connection to his target, and events take a suspenseful darker turn that ends in a bullets-blazing finale riffing on the death of John Dillinger. Lionel Barrymore costars as an alcoholic mob doctor in this undeservedly lesser-known but gripping ripped-fromthe-headlines yarn.

• crime
• drama