The Tough Guys Collection – Bullets Or Ballots/San Quentin/A Slight Case Of Murder DVD – Frank McHugh, John Litel 

Bullets Or Ballots: After Police Captain Dan McLaren becomes police commissioner former detective Johnny Blake knocks him down convincing rackets boss Al Kruger that Blake is sincere in his effort to join the mob. “”Buggs”” Fenner thinks Blake is a police agent. San Quentin: Do the crime do the time. But what happens during the long years spent behind the walls of San Quentin? The penitentiary’s new yard captain wants to make those years a time of rehabilitation rather than punishment. But not everyone’s buying it. Humphrey Bogart portrays Red continuing his climb to stardom in this brisk film that’s one of a string of Depression-era works combining gangster-movie elements with a Big House setting. Studio mainstay Pat O’Brien plays Steve Jameson whose carrot-and-stick reforms begin to change Red’s thinking. An inmates’ strike and a scripture-quoting con who swipes a rifle are among the troubles Jameson faces- and Red is another as he reverts to his old ways and makes a violent break for freedom. A Slight Case Of Murder: A breakneck-paced comedy starring Edward G. Robinson as a tough but good-hearted bootlegger. When Prohibition is repealed Robinson faces a financial crisis: His beer tastes so awful that no one wants to drink it legally. As an additional headache Robinson is under scrutiny from the Law which is waiting to slip the cuffs on him for the slightest infraction. He arrives at his rented Saratoga mansion with his wife (Ruth Donnelly) daughter (Jane Bryan) and adopted son (Bobby Jordan) only to discover that a killer has left four corpses in his bedroom. Robinson and his stooges are forced to hide the bodies before his future son-in-law (Willard Parker) who happens to be a cop tumbles to the dilemma. Based on a stage play by Howard Lindsay and Damon Runyon.