Law of the Underworld

1938 "By Day, a Polo-Playing Socialite...By Night, King of the Racket Mob!"
5.4| 1h1m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 06 May 1938 Released
Producted By: RKO Radio Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A respected citizen with secret ties to the local mob is faced with revealing his criminal connections to save two innocent people from execution

Genre

Drama, Crime

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Director

Lew Landers

Production Companies

RKO Radio Pictures

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Law of the Underworld Audience Reviews

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Lightdeossk Captivating movie !
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Ridicules movie about a gentleman gangster Gene Fillmore, played by the square jawed Chester Morris, with a heart of gold who gets these not very bright and barley out of their teens youngsters Annie Porter,Anne Shirley, and Tommy Brown, Richard Bond, to help him pull off a jewel robbery that ends up with the two facing both life in prison as well as the electric chair for their effort. After being mugged in New York's Central Park of their wedding money-A cool $136.00- by big time gangster Rocky, Eduardo Ciannelli, and his hoodlum pal the two decide to single handily knock off Rocky's gang headquarters only to end up on the short end of the stick. That's by them being overpowered by the gangsters, who outnumbered them some 10 to 1, and about to be whacked by them. In steps the new gang boss Gentelman Gene Fillmore who plans after saving their behinds to use the two simpletons as parts in his next job a midtown jewel robbery.Mindlessly going along with Fillmore's plan the robbery soon backfires when the hot headed and trigger happy Rocky ended up killing the store owner and critically wounding his employee. This against Fillmore's strict orders not to use deadly force in robbing the store at all cost. Now faced with the death penalty after being caught and identified as the man who pulled off the robbery, even though he was nowhere near the scene when the killing took place, Tommy can get fried or electrocuted for the crime that he didn't commit. As for Anne she can end up behind bars for the rest of her life for being an accomplice in the robbery murder.***SPOILERS*** Fillmore realizing that Rocky screwed up the entire job confronts him at his hideout and the two end up shooting it up with Rocky getting the worst of it. Being tried by his peers, fellow gangsters, Fillmore looks like he about to be cooked or shot for killing Rocky until the witness to the killing Dorothy Palmer, Lee Patrick, the late Rocky's gun moll was found out to have framed him! And in return was shot and killed by one of Fillmore loyal followers, who didn't for a moment believes a word that she said, Batsy(Paul Guylfoyle)right under the noses of the police who were there to protect her!Well we still have the fact that Tommy is to face the electric chair for the murder of the jewelry store owner but now Fillmore getting religious in him having an innocent man sent to the electric chair because of his actions admits he was behind the jewel robbery and, even though he didn't pull the trigger, and killing of the shop owner. We don't know if Fillmore got chair or not he could have well have gotten life without parole since the movie came to a sudden end after Fillmore's confession. But that doesn't excuse both Tommy & Anne who brainlessly went along with Fillmore's crazy & insane plan that set this whole mess of a failed jewel robbery into motion.
bkoganbing Law Of The Underworld contains some nice performances by Chester Morris, Lee Patrick, and Eduardo Ciannelli and sad that they are wasted in a muddle of a film. Quite frankly this thing is unbelievable.Richard Bond and Anne Shirley are a pair of engaged folks who apparently have no street smarts and flash a roll around some gangsters. One of them Eduardo Ciannelli is a particularly murderous individual who hasn't been getting his financial due from the big boss Chester Morris. Still this big time heist guy robbing these kids for walking around money is really dumb.But that's nothing to how dumb Shirley and Bond are who decide to stick up the stick up men and get their $136.00 nest egg back. Morris is in the room now and he overpowers them. But he decides he can use these two as a kind of shill for his next job which is jewelry store robbery.It all of course both goes wrong and the film keeps going downhill from there. Lee Patrick is a nightclub singer and a really bad dame who's been two timing Morris with Ciannelli. Walter Abel repeats the role he had in Warner Brothers Racketbusters as a Thomas E. Dewey type special prosecutor.The story is pretty unbelievable, why didn't those two young people just go to the cops and make a police report of the robbery? I guarantee you if you see Law Of The Underworld you won't figure it out either.
MartinHafer Again and again during the course of this film you might think that the movie might in fact turn out to be a reasonably good little film. However, due to really awful writing that occasionally creeps onto the screen, the overall effort is very, very poor, so don't get your hopes up with this little film.The movie starts by showing a young couple being robbed in Central Park. It isn't surprising this happens--after all, they did a lousy job of concealing their wad of cash meant for their honeymoon. And, oddly, when a cop comes upon the robbery, the couple say nothing and don't ask for help--allowing the two crooks to continue robbing them and get away!! Even dumber is later, when the two burst into a room full of hoodlums and demand their money back at gunpoint!!! Believe it or not, this very, very naive couple only behave more stupidly throughout the course of the film.While these two dummies seem too idiotic to believe, the rest of the actors in leading roles are pretty good---at least at first. Eduardo Cianelli is excellent as a hot-headed hood and Chester Morris is generally good as the leader of a gang. However, as the film concludes, Morris is so stupid that you wonder if hanging around this couple perhaps wore off on him--such as a stupid virus!! While parts of the film work, the bad parts are what I was left remembering. Even though I am a huge fan of classic Hollywood films, this is one I can't recommend and can never see myself seeing again. Avoid it--you'll be doing yourself a favor.By the way, if you look carefully, you'll see that a member of the gang is a very young Jack Carson before he was a star.
lianfarrer LAW OF THE UNDERWORLD is a grade-B gangster film that is little more than a promising premise. Chester Morris stars as Gene Fillmore, an "honorable gangster" whose strategy is to keep a low criminal profile, directing his gang to carry out well-planned robberies that avoid the need to use violence. He keeps his men on a tight leash to make sure they stay out of trouble—and jail.So far, Gene's system has been successful. None of his high-society friends (including the newly-appointed district attorney, played by Walter Abel) has any idea that he is anything other than a fun-loving playboy. In fact, the D.A. tries to elicit Gene's help in a crusade to wipe out crime. He declines the invitation. It might have made a more interesting story if he'd done otherwise!One of Gene's underlings, Rockey (played by the appropriately creepy Eduardo Ciannelli), chafes at Gene's "play-it-safe" approach to crime. In a play to become top dog, he has sown the seeds of dissent with some of the other members of the gang, convincing them that Gene is too weak to be their leader. The ruthless Rockey is also having an affair with Gene's girl, a nightclub singer named Dorothy (played by a miscast Lee Patrick). Gene's "honorable thief" character is put to the test when an innocent young couple (Anne Shirley and Richard Bond) are drawn into his nest of criminals. The youngsters have stolen back the money that Rockey had stolen from them, at gunpoint, a short time earlier. They are told that they themselves are now guilty of theft and will go to jail unless they agree to participate as decoys in a jewel robbery. During the heist, Rockey shoots a couple of people, and the D.A. is out for blood.Back at the gang's nightclub hangout, Rockey and Gene square off, with Gene killing Rockey in self defense. Chanteuse Dorothy is enraged to see her man dead. In revenge, she lies to the gang in order to get them to turn on Gene. She then tips off the police, who raid the nightclub and arrest the young couple, though they fail to find Gene. Will honorable-gangster Gene let the young innocents take the rap for him? The outcome is pretty obvious, especially if you know the kind of character Chester Morris usually plays.The plot of LAW OF THE UNDERWORLD is full of holes and gaps in credibility, which undermines the conflict and suspense that might have made this a neat little crime story. Among the major head-scratching moments is the scene where Rockey holds up the young couple in Central Park. A police officer walks right up to them in the middle of the robbery and the kids say nothing, even though the girl had just said something about wishing a policeman would come along. It's also pretty hard to accept that nightclub singer Dorothy would prefer churlish, snarling Rockey to loving, generous (and much better-looking) Gene. Those are just two of many logistical gaffes to be found in the film. Additional liabilities are flaccid direction by Lew Landers and a patchy script by Bert Granet and Edmund L. Hartman.Among the few positive elements to be found in LAW OF THE UNDERWORLD are the performances of the always-watchable Chester Morris (I wish he'd been given better material to work with) and especially Eduardo Ciannelli, who shows himself to be the master of the sadistic sneer.Don't waste your time with this one unless you're a devoted fan of the genre.