4 movies 4 DVD
Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis
Warner Home Video 2012
Bullets or Ballots (1936) is a lesser of the four thrillers in the Edward G. Robinson Turner Classic Movies Greatest Gangster Films Collection. This 4 DVD set is also a lesser offering than Volume 4 of the Warner Brothers Gangster Picture Collection which includes three of the titles offered here and two others as well as the excellent documentary Public Enemies: The Golden Age of Gangster Films.
The four movies in this set are Kid Galahad, a boxing movie costarring Humphrey Bogart and Betty Davis, the very enjoyable Larceny Inc, and The Little Giant where Edward G. Robinson plays the character his imitators always refer to.
In Bullets Or Ballots Robinson plays detective Johnny Blake. After a newspaper editor is gunned down for campaigning against the local crime bosses, Blake goes undercover to find out who Mr. Big is. Bogart plays Bugs Fenner, a trigger happy crook who thinks Blake is not legit.
This is a decent enough movie but not more than that. The print used for the DVD is pretty good with the exception of the scene where Fenner is waiting for the newspaper editor to come out of his office.
The 4 DVD in the TCM Gangster Film Collection are also available individually. They all include Warner Night at the Movies, a special feature that recreates the theater experience with a newsreel, a short or two, or a cartoon.