When
Johnny B. Cashed His Check- Edward G. Robinson’s Bullets or Ballots
DVD Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
Bullets or Ballots, starring Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, 1936
Not one of the Bronx corner boys, not one of Harry’s Variety’s bookie joint backroom horseplayers, not one of the crap-shooters from the 242nd Street back alleys, not one of the flim-flam armed robbery, grand larceny guys, not one of the grifters, drifters, or midnight sifters, not one of fixer boys, not one of the percentage guys, cried a tear when they heard that Johnny B., Johnny Blake, Detective Johnny Blake (played by Edward G. Robinson) cashed his check in a pool of blood on the street in front of the Oceanic Bank. Oh, well, maybe Moll, Moll the queen of the numbers on that side of town, Bronx , Harlem, places like that, did cry one tear but what would you expect from an old Johnny flame whose operation he winked at. Winked at since Moll was seen on more than one occasion coming out of Johnny’s digs and he after her with a smile on his face from her “curling his toes.” But she will get over it, if she hasn’t already, when the next Johnny cop comes by and needs his toes curled for a wink at her operation.
Oh, yeah, in the interest of full disclosure, nobody will be crying a tear over the fate of the late “Bugs” Fenner either (played by Humphrey Bogart), the guy who helped Johnny cash his check in that big pool of blood while cashing in his chips at the same time, courtesy of the late Detective Johnny Blake. Nobody from Fulton’s Fish Market where he extorted (such an ugly word, let’s say received tribute) so much for each fish that passed through, nobody from Biggie’s Meat Market where he also got tribute for each steak that passeth through, nobody from the Dairy Co-Operative when each glass of milk for growing city kids required a tariff, and no fruits and vegetables guys who were weighed down by a Bugs toll. No strong arm guys, no axe murderers, not safe-crackers, and none of the aforementioned grifters, drifters and midnight sifter either, not a sentimental guy in the lot. Not sentimental either would be one Jimmy the Slice, Bugs, number two guy in his extortion rackets, oops, tribute operation, who even a couple of minutes after Bugs’ sent-off had been seen is removing Bugs’ name from his office door. See Jimmy and a whole slew of guys just moved one rung up the food chain, nothing else. That was just how it was with the tough guys who gave no quarter and expected none in the film under review, Bullets or Ballots.
But maybe I had better step back and give you the story of how and why Johnny bought his ticket (everybody called him Johnny, copper or hood, so we will use that designation here as well) and why nobody cried that precious tear over the matter. Johnny and all those corner boys, bookies, extortionists, armed robbers, murderers, con men, numbers racketeers, drifters, grifters and midnight sifters all grew up in the same neighborhood, all started out life with a two strikes against them and a chip on their shoulders, even Johnny. But Johnny, had been smart, “street smart,” Johnny played the percentages and figured that if he didn’t want to do a nickel or dime at Sing Sing for this and that, maybe more than once, he had better move on. Moving on meant joining the cops, and why not, since he already knew who the clientele would be. Not just a regular New York City cop cadging coffee and doughnuts just for being a copper though, a hard-boiled honest one too. So he pinched a lot of his old time cronies, worse, he made them (when they were not in the slammer) tip their hats to him, to the law, on the streets. That little act of homage ate at a lot of them and explains why there were tearless Bronx boys.
So Johnny good cop went about his business of smacking down the bad guys and making them like it, almost. But you know cities, cities like New York, have more criminals and more rackets per square mile than you can shake a stick at so crime was rampant, out of control, beginning to take over the ethos of the city. A few guys, do-gooders fought back, including one publisher who really was serious about cleaning up the town, a guy who guys like Johnny Blake could look up to and maybe help out. Except that publisher was disrupting the flow of criminal dough, no, was making such a ruckus that he might disrupt the flow of criminal dough and that was enough, enough for Bugs, and so one night under the orders of this reputed crime boss he went down in a hail of bullets. The irony, or maybe the naïve on his part, was that this publisher’s idea was to use the ballot box to get rid of the public officials and coppers who were “on the take.” A silly, if brave, man with a silly idea then, or now, when money, lots of it, greases the wheels of government in your favor if you have the kale.
Johnny, and not just Johnny, took that publisher’s murder hard, took it hard knowing flat-out that Bugs had done it, had decided to send a strong message to do-gooders to put their heads down and take it, take whatever was dished out and like it. But Bug’s free-lance action caused waves among the racketeers too, especially Bugs’ boss up the food chain, Al Kruger, and his bosses at the top, the central committee of the WASP establishment of the city who were bankrolling the rackets and raking in the profits (okay, okay since this is New York City maybe a few Dutch guys thrown in the mix too). So there was an upper management dispute as Kruger was given orders to clean house, to get rid of guy who still believed that shoot-outs were the way to do business.
Meanwhile that murder stuck in Johnny’s craw, others too, and he and his co-thinkers really wanted to take a little action, and they did. And here is where Johnny’s skills as an old corner boy who knew all the hard guys, especially Kruger, came into play. The plan hatched at the highest levels of the police department was for Johnny to take a tumble off the force, get kicked off for not playing ball with the new police regime, then take umbrage at being kicked off the force in a public way, and in revenge take a “consultant” job with Kruger checking for weak spots in his operations. The number one weak spot of course being one old Capote-like Bugs Fenner. And so the deal went down, Johnny got on the inside, got tight with Kruger whom he had known from the old days, and started to see how the operation worked right up to the top, up to that WASP central committee (and the Dutchies thrown in).
Funny it worked, well, mainly worked, for a while. Johnny was moving in nicely and Kruger was happy, happy until old Bugs got his nose bent out of shape and knocked him off. Meanwhile Johnny keeps plugging away at the mechanics of the operation and wound up being the guy who delivered the dough to the guys at the top, their profits. A big deal, and that might have worked out in the end except Bugs really did not like Johnny, didn’t believe he had turned rogue cop, and went after him prior to Johnny’s deliver debut. That is when the shoot-out occurred and Bugs wound up very dead and Johnny mortally wounded. Johnny, good cop to the end, delivers the dough to the WASP committee as part of the “sting” operation and then cashed his check at the coppers busted up the committee’s operation. So that is why Johnny may draw a tear from his old sweetie, Moll. And why no self-respecting hard guy will shed any, and empathically not tip his hat, when they hear Johnny Blake passed on.
DVD Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
Bullets or Ballots, starring Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, 1936
Not one of the Bronx corner boys, not one of Harry’s Variety’s bookie joint backroom horseplayers, not one of the crap-shooters from the 242nd Street back alleys, not one of the flim-flam armed robbery, grand larceny guys, not one of the grifters, drifters, or midnight sifters, not one of fixer boys, not one of the percentage guys, cried a tear when they heard that Johnny B., Johnny Blake, Detective Johnny Blake (played by Edward G. Robinson) cashed his check in a pool of blood on the street in front of the Oceanic Bank. Oh, well, maybe Moll, Moll the queen of the numbers on that side of town, Bronx , Harlem, places like that, did cry one tear but what would you expect from an old Johnny flame whose operation he winked at. Winked at since Moll was seen on more than one occasion coming out of Johnny’s digs and he after her with a smile on his face from her “curling his toes.” But she will get over it, if she hasn’t already, when the next Johnny cop comes by and needs his toes curled for a wink at her operation.
Oh, yeah, in the interest of full disclosure, nobody will be crying a tear over the fate of the late “Bugs” Fenner either (played by Humphrey Bogart), the guy who helped Johnny cash his check in that big pool of blood while cashing in his chips at the same time, courtesy of the late Detective Johnny Blake. Nobody from Fulton’s Fish Market where he extorted (such an ugly word, let’s say received tribute) so much for each fish that passed through, nobody from Biggie’s Meat Market where he also got tribute for each steak that passeth through, nobody from the Dairy Co-Operative when each glass of milk for growing city kids required a tariff, and no fruits and vegetables guys who were weighed down by a Bugs toll. No strong arm guys, no axe murderers, not safe-crackers, and none of the aforementioned grifters, drifters and midnight sifter either, not a sentimental guy in the lot. Not sentimental either would be one Jimmy the Slice, Bugs, number two guy in his extortion rackets, oops, tribute operation, who even a couple of minutes after Bugs’ sent-off had been seen is removing Bugs’ name from his office door. See Jimmy and a whole slew of guys just moved one rung up the food chain, nothing else. That was just how it was with the tough guys who gave no quarter and expected none in the film under review, Bullets or Ballots.
But maybe I had better step back and give you the story of how and why Johnny bought his ticket (everybody called him Johnny, copper or hood, so we will use that designation here as well) and why nobody cried that precious tear over the matter. Johnny and all those corner boys, bookies, extortionists, armed robbers, murderers, con men, numbers racketeers, drifters, grifters and midnight sifters all grew up in the same neighborhood, all started out life with a two strikes against them and a chip on their shoulders, even Johnny. But Johnny, had been smart, “street smart,” Johnny played the percentages and figured that if he didn’t want to do a nickel or dime at Sing Sing for this and that, maybe more than once, he had better move on. Moving on meant joining the cops, and why not, since he already knew who the clientele would be. Not just a regular New York City cop cadging coffee and doughnuts just for being a copper though, a hard-boiled honest one too. So he pinched a lot of his old time cronies, worse, he made them (when they were not in the slammer) tip their hats to him, to the law, on the streets. That little act of homage ate at a lot of them and explains why there were tearless Bronx boys.
So Johnny good cop went about his business of smacking down the bad guys and making them like it, almost. But you know cities, cities like New York, have more criminals and more rackets per square mile than you can shake a stick at so crime was rampant, out of control, beginning to take over the ethos of the city. A few guys, do-gooders fought back, including one publisher who really was serious about cleaning up the town, a guy who guys like Johnny Blake could look up to and maybe help out. Except that publisher was disrupting the flow of criminal dough, no, was making such a ruckus that he might disrupt the flow of criminal dough and that was enough, enough for Bugs, and so one night under the orders of this reputed crime boss he went down in a hail of bullets. The irony, or maybe the naïve on his part, was that this publisher’s idea was to use the ballot box to get rid of the public officials and coppers who were “on the take.” A silly, if brave, man with a silly idea then, or now, when money, lots of it, greases the wheels of government in your favor if you have the kale.
Johnny, and not just Johnny, took that publisher’s murder hard, took it hard knowing flat-out that Bugs had done it, had decided to send a strong message to do-gooders to put their heads down and take it, take whatever was dished out and like it. But Bug’s free-lance action caused waves among the racketeers too, especially Bugs’ boss up the food chain, Al Kruger, and his bosses at the top, the central committee of the WASP establishment of the city who were bankrolling the rackets and raking in the profits (okay, okay since this is New York City maybe a few Dutch guys thrown in the mix too). So there was an upper management dispute as Kruger was given orders to clean house, to get rid of guy who still believed that shoot-outs were the way to do business.
Meanwhile that murder stuck in Johnny’s craw, others too, and he and his co-thinkers really wanted to take a little action, and they did. And here is where Johnny’s skills as an old corner boy who knew all the hard guys, especially Kruger, came into play. The plan hatched at the highest levels of the police department was for Johnny to take a tumble off the force, get kicked off for not playing ball with the new police regime, then take umbrage at being kicked off the force in a public way, and in revenge take a “consultant” job with Kruger checking for weak spots in his operations. The number one weak spot of course being one old Capote-like Bugs Fenner. And so the deal went down, Johnny got on the inside, got tight with Kruger whom he had known from the old days, and started to see how the operation worked right up to the top, up to that WASP central committee (and the Dutchies thrown in).
Funny it worked, well, mainly worked, for a while. Johnny was moving in nicely and Kruger was happy, happy until old Bugs got his nose bent out of shape and knocked him off. Meanwhile Johnny keeps plugging away at the mechanics of the operation and wound up being the guy who delivered the dough to the guys at the top, their profits. A big deal, and that might have worked out in the end except Bugs really did not like Johnny, didn’t believe he had turned rogue cop, and went after him prior to Johnny’s deliver debut. That is when the shoot-out occurred and Bugs wound up very dead and Johnny mortally wounded. Johnny, good cop to the end, delivers the dough to the WASP committee as part of the “sting” operation and then cashed his check at the coppers busted up the committee’s operation. So that is why Johnny may draw a tear from his old sweetie, Moll. And why no self-respecting hard guy will shed any, and empathically not tip his hat, when they hear Johnny Blake passed on.
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