In 1931, timid lingerie salesman Johnny Dill becomes depressed
when he loses his girl friend, Judy Parker
(Anne Gwynne), to his smooth-talking
childhood friend, lawyer William T. Allen. Instead of proposing to
Judy, as he had planned, Johnny takes Millie Gardner, his
assistant, to a movie. To Johnny's dismay, Millie is enthralled by
the film's aggressive hero, gangster Big Nick Moronie.
Fed up with
his "nice guy" image, Johnny assumes a tough gangster demeanor and
saunters into a speakeasy. There Johnny flirts with a
gangster-crazy socialite and angers the real Big Nick Moronie,
"public enemy number 21," when he pulls the mobster's nose in a
foolish show of bravado. Later, Big Nick sends one of his thugs,
the enormous Little Joe, to intimidate Maboose, "public enemy
number 24." Instead, Maboose, who wants to move up in rank, bribes
Little Joe to kill Big Nick, and the thug does the job in Big
Nick's apartment, which is across the hall from Johnny's.
To avoid
detection, Little Joe then deposits Big Nick's body in one of
Johnny's lingerie trunks. After he discovers the corpse, a
terrified Johnny loads the trunk onto the back of a rental truck,
but loses it during a high-speed chase with a policeman. Six days
later, Johnny, who has been dubbed "Killer" Dill in the press, is
hiding out when Judy convinces him to give himself up. At his
trial, Johnny is defended by the publicity-hungry Will, and
despite Will's blatant incompetency, he is acquitted.
Although
Johnny wins his freedom, he is still perceived as Big Nick's
killer and is awarded the title of "public enemy number 21." As
Big Nick's brother Louie has sworn revenge
on Johnny, Will
convinces his friend to team up with Maboose, who wants to exploit
Johnny's newfound reputation as part of a plan to take over
Louie's territory. The scheming Little Joe, meanwhile, arranges
with Maboose to double-cross the unsuspecting Louie.
Before Little
Joe carries out his plan, however, Johnny, who has heard that Judy
is about to marry Will and is finally going to confront the
lawyer, waves a toy pistol at him. Believing that the toy is real,
Little Joe admits to killing Big Nick, and Johnny then forces the
thug to write a confession. When Little Joe finally realizes that
the gun is a toy, he
starts to strangle Johnny, but is stopped by
an enraged Louie, who has overheard Little Joe's declaration of
guilt.
After Louie and Johnny shove Little Joe out the window,
Will selfishly persuades Johnny to tear up the confession,
claiming that it would hurt Judy because it would embarrass his
boss, Maboose. Finally seeing Will for what he is, Judy breaks
their engagement and rushes to propose to the ever-faithful Johnny.
|
Cast:
Anne Gwynne ... Judy Parker
Stuart Erwin
Frank Albertson
Mike Mazurki
Milburn Stone
John Eldredge
Julie Mitchum
Ben Weldon
Anthony Warde |
Production:
John O'Dea- Writer
Story by Alan Friedman
Hyland & Raymond L. Schrock- Adaptation
Lewis D. Collins- Director
Max M. King- Producer
William Sickner- Cinematographer
Marty Cohn- editor |
