Metro Joins The G-Men

Chester Morris Crashes The Big House To Become Public Hero #1 (1935)

Warners had its Little Caesar and Public Enemy, but MGM could point with pride to "electrifying" The Big House as model for actioners trading on that prison pic's notoriety. Public Hero's trailer opens with its cast and director J. Walter Rueben running off the 1930 oldie for tips to energize this programmer update, Chester Morris again in stir, though now in undercover capacity to rout the "Purple Gang," real-life public enemies that had operated during the 20's. Effectiveness of federal law enforcement was being celebrated in movies, pic-makers and fans joyous that screen violence could be upticked now that G-Men were firing weapons. Public Hero #1 approximates the Dillinger killing in a theatre-set showdown parallel to how the actual badman got his. Crackling Hero also boasts Warner-ish tempo and makes with rat-a-tat equal to year's supply of Police Gazette. It got out as Metro was firming up a "B" unit to accommodate double-features, but Hero dodges economies that might have been its lot had production begun even a few months later. The yarn sustained to early 40's remake as The Getaway, a settled B and watered down, but efficient too in modest way.