Richard Arlen left Pine-Thomas so they couldn't make Arlen-Chester Morris movies any more and tried a replacement with Russell Hayden. Hayden is the biggest weakness of this film - he's a skinny wet drip with a droopy moustache, and no sense of threat or power. When Morris goes to Nancy Kelly "you're in love with Hayden" you go, "no she isn't".
It's a shame because the basic story of this is solid and it's a period movie, very rare for thrifty Pine-Thomas. Morris, Hayden and Kelly are childhood friends who grow up in different ways - Kelly is a saloon singer, Hayden a cop, Morris runs a gambling saloon. There's songs a gun play.
It's a knock off of the story of movie James Cagney was making at Warner Bros - two men in love with the same woman, being a gangster but a good gangster, etc - complete with Morris staggering down the steps and dying of a gunshot wound - but amiable. It just needed a stronger male co-star. (They realised it too and never reteamed Morris and Hayden even though they'd planned to.)
The support cast includes people like Sheldon Leonard, Lyle Talbot and Lee Patrick from The Maltese Falcon.
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