horribly unimpressive and unoriginal gangster film . it amaze that this movie be often put in the same class a william wellman public enemy . like all gangster pic of the time and they both cover the rise and fall of some criminal tough guy . aside from that and however and the two film could not be more opposite . wellman picture be a gritty and artistic masterpiece and while this clunker be nothing more than a stock gangster film with barely a good quality to speak of . the writing be horrible and the acting be bad and and it seem like director mervyn leroy wasn not even try . it hard to hate iconic star and edward g. robinson and a the title character and even if he do overact his way through every scene . it easy to hate everything else and though .