Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Dan1863Sickles So I'm four feet tall, fat and ugly, but I'm the toughest guy on the force, see? And my name is Johnny Blake, only I look more like Immanuel Blakenstein, get it? Jack Warner told me I can't play gangsters any more, so now I'm a cop. A fat, ugly, four foot tall cop who looks like a clown air-punching guys twice my size. Then I get canned from the force, see? But really I'm going undercover, and I'm really a good cop who's out to shut down the rackets. It's okay, my old pal Bogart is playing the second banana hood, and the two of us have a shoot out at the end. I don't really point my gun, I just close my eyes and shoot in the air, and then you see him fall. This ain't KEY LARGO, kids.But say, what the hell! Bogart got me too. So then my best girl picks me up in her car, and we spend about ten minutes talking about how our love was meant to be, and all the while I'm gut shot. You can see on my face, I'm in pain, only it really looks like I've got gas. Gas, get me? Like I've been eating too much pompano, and mixing it with champagne. Or maybe I ate too much of that new Soylent product, Soylent Green. Now that's a picture! BULLETS OR BALLOTS is the kind of movie that makes a guy want to go to the Exchange, and tell them all about Soylent. And then go home.

LeonLouisRicci The ridiculous title aside, this is an OK gangster film with more gab then guns, although there is an edge to the execution and display. The script is interesting in a behind the scenes kind of way that lets us in on the money machines and political corruption that is Warners trademark of message movies. The attraction here is the two stars and the modern fascination with these actors and their tough guy personas and they don't disappoint.This film is more sanitized and sterile then the best of the gangster films (as the newly defined Hays Code forced tricky gymnastic presentations of the seedy and the sultry). But the studio professionals were up to the task and a "new" type of underworld uncovering emerged on the screen. For better or worse.

Neil Doyle As crime melodramas go, this is a good one from Warner Bros. in the mid-'30s.And once again, EDWARD G. ROBINSON, HUMPHREY BOGART, JOAN BLONDELL and BARTON MacLANE do good jobs as part of the Warner stock company. It's really an assembly line melodrama about the numbers racket based on real life headlines from the '30s.It's effective in documenting the story of how a police detective (Robinson) fired from his job decides to infiltrate the mob by pretending to accept a job from the crime boss (MacLane). Humphrey Bogart is MacLane's trigger-happy partner, warned by MacLane not to shoot from the hip at anyone who crosses them. But soon it's MacLane himself who is victimized by the ambitious Bogart who wants the number one job for himself and resents any interference from Robinson.It all builds toward an exciting climax with a downbeat ending for Robinson. Surprisingly, it's directed at a fast pace by the very urbane and debonair William Keighley and not the studio's more intense Michael Curtiz whom we associate more with his ability to handle tough crime melodramas.

bsmith5552 "Bullets or Ballots" was affected by the new motion picture Production Code introduced in 1934. The Code stipulated, among other things, that gangsters could no longer be glorified in films as had been done with "Little Caesar" (1930) and "The Public Enemy" (1931). That meant that Warners resident gangsters Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney had to come over to the right side of the law.Cagney had done so in 1935 with "G-Men" but in 1936 was embroiled in a contract dispute with Warners and had left the lot. That left Robinson. You can just hear the brain trusts at Warners saying, "Let's put Eddie Robinson in a new crime picture only this time we'll have him go undercover so that he can ACT like a gangster while satisfying the Code by really working on the side of the law". "Bullets or Ballots" was the result.Gangster Al Kruger (Barton MacLane) is a new order of corporate type gangster that shuns the old violent ways of the 20s. He is controlled by unseen bosses well placed in the business community. His second in command Nick "Bugs" Fenner is of the old school. When crusading newspaper reporter Ward Bryant (Henry O'Neill) is murdered by Fenner, it sets off a cry for justice. Police Captain McLaren is appointed Special Commissioner charged with cleaning up the rackets.Detective Johnny Blake (Robinson) is a down on his luck policeman who has been exiled to an outer precinct. One day he learns that McLaren has fired him as part of his cleanup. But as we learn, Blake is really working undercover informing McLaren of the mob's plans. Blake then joins up with Kruger and rises quickly through the ranks. Fenner, meanwhile doesn't trust Blake and the two compete against each other.As the result of the crime crackdown, the mob's earnings have dropped. Blake suggests that they move into the numbers racket which was being run successfully on a small scale by Blake's girlfriend Lee Morgan (Joan Blondell) with the aid her pick-up man Herman (Frank McHugh) and Harlem contact Nellie (Louise Beavers).With the success of the numbers game, Fenner sees that Kruger has gone soft and is neglecting the mob's other businesses. Fenner murders Kruger and vies with Blake to take over. Blake succeeds and continues to inform McLaren of the mob's intentions. Fenner decides on a showdown and................Robinson, who was a well educated and classically trained actor wanted to get away from gangster roles and did so whenever he could. But in spite of that, he will always be best remembered for these types of roles. Barton MacLane for once doesn't play the brutish gangster. He plays Kruger as a businessman and not a thug. Bogey on the other hand, had just made his mark in "The Petrified Forest" (1936) and was typecast for the most part as a gangster for the next five years. Joan Blondell is wasted in her superficial role as Robinson's love interest and McHugh is just along for comedy relief.Still, "Bullets or Ballots" remains one of the all-time gangster classics.