Robert Taylor was a better actor playing more ruthless characters. He's ideal here as a gambling boss who pretends to be a taxi dirver. He falls for Lana Turner.
MGM weren't natural makers of gangster films but they could do them well especially when as here John Lee Mahin worked on the cscript.
Taylor and Turner are very good value, have tremendous chemistry. Turner is impressive - sexy, a rich girl, daughter of prosecutor Edward Arnold (quite a cynical portrait of him, he admits to being corrupt if it'll get rid of Taylor). She's clearly hot for Taylor and he's got for her. She's gorgeous. My opinion of Turner is really going up lately. Mind you I think Marvyn le Roy lets her down in that crucial scene where she kills someone for Taylor - that could've been better.
Van Heflin is Taylor's boozy, literate best friend. These characters are writers conceits - so many are boozy and they like to think they are wise. Heflinf's good in the role though. Like a lot of gangster films the story is as much a love affair between two men as a man and a woman.
Patricia Dane, who didn't have a huge career, has a decent turn as Taylor's flooze, while Glenda Farrell is showy as an ex of Taylor's who begs for help. Robert Sterling is dull as the nice guy who loves Turner.
Neat black and white photography. It wobbles a little in the last third as they try to redeem Taylor.
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