a5c7b9f00b A crusading young politician is running for mayor on a program of cleaning up the graft-ridden politics of a big city. However, all of his opponent are mysteriously being shot to death, which does him no good, and the coroner can&#39;t even find the bullets in the bodies of the dead men. A young lawyer is elected mayor of the city and promises to rid it of the corruption it&#39;s famous for. The problem is that most of the corruption he&#39;s vowed to eliminate is caused by the crooked political machine that helped elect him. A lot of early programmers were that in name only - there was nothing cheap or slipshod about them. Mostly they were helped by excellent casts, in some cases terrific actors who somehow didn&#39;t catch on or who were not in the right place at the right time. Preston Foster came from Broadway to recreate his rolethe happy go lucky riveter in &quot;Two Seconds&quot; and later won praise for his role in the film &quot;The Last Mile&quot;&quot;Killer&quot; Meares but while he didn&#39;t have the conventional leading man looks he was just a sensational young character actor. Likewise Evalyn Knapp who First National rated pretty highly but unfortunately her first feature had her pitted against newcomer James Cagney and he was the one who came out on top<br/><br/>The usual story. Up and coming politico Tim Butler (Preston Foster) vows to clean up the city if elected mayor but the manipulators (who got him elected in the first place) soon begin to plot his downfall. One of the crooks, Gorman (weasley Tully Marshall) had before approved of Tim marrying his daughter but now forbids Sylvia (sultry Natalie Moorehead) to have anything to do with him. He calls in henchman Regan, the slimiest of scoundrels and who better to play him than Warner Richmond, an actor right at home playing low lifes (I last saw him in &quot;Night Court&quot;, he was the thug employed to hide in Anita Page&#39;s bedroom and then try to convince the neighbours (he did so easily) that the devoted mother had resorted to prostitution)!! When he can&#39;t convince Tim to go over to the bad side he resorts to strong arm tactics but is stymied through the efforts of a hidden newspaper cameraman who gets photos of the event. Seeing it all through is Ellen, Butler&#39;s loyal and trusty secretary who knows all too well of the corruption that Gorman and Sylvia are mired in and also secretly gives Tim her life savings (she tries to convince him that the gift is from his old friend the doctor)!! Evalyn Knapp is a joy in the role, stamping it with her very bubbly personality.<br/><br/>Unfortunately Bob is also set up - photographed in the apartment of a &quot;notorious blonde&quot; (Gwen Lee) and dumped from his job, butan Attorney at Law if he can convince enough honest officials of his innocence he will be able to look forward to a promotion to State&#39;s Attorney. Before the good times can start Tim is involved in the murder of Regan - he was an innocent bystander but with false testimony and an unfair trial now finds himself facing life behind bars. The ending is an about face featuring a mad scientist who has designed ice bullets made from poisonous alcohol andusual Mischa Auer completely steals the moviehe tries to rid the town of corruption!! As this film opens, a quotation attributed to Cicero is displayed within the very first frame: &quot;He that violates his oath profanes the divinity of faith itself&quot;. These pungent words are actually etched in stone above an entry alcove at the Los Angeles City Hall, an edifice completed in 1928, five years before this melodrama was filmed upon a studio set in nearby Hollywood, and appears to indicate that a seriously creative effort may be in the offing. Such is not the case, however, this piece being constructed in predictable grooves while it tells its tale of a political maverick whose own party hopes to suppress his essays at reform. He is the iconoclast Tim Butler (Preston Foster), an attorney who is backed in his attempt to be elected mayor of a large city by his party&#39;s nabobs, in particular a Mr. Gorman (Tully Marshall) to whose daughter Sylvia (Natalie Moorhead) Tim has become affianced, a condition that greatly perturbs Tim&#39;s secretary Ellen (Evalyn Knapp) who, in typically reach-me-down movie fashion, dotes upon him. Soon after he is elected, Tim begins a determined undertaking to reduce the pernicious power of his city&#39;s political hacks, although he thereby intimidates his former sponsors. The actual party boss is one Regan (Warner Richmond) who is at the centre of a plot to entangle Butler in apparent immoral conduct with a prostitute, thereupon causing Tim to lose face, along with his mayoral position. Following Regan&#39;s murder, by an unknown gun-wielding killer, local newspapers develop various bogus reasons, primarily of revenge, to pin the homicide upon the ex-mayor, and following an obviously fixed trial, he is sentenced to life imprisonment, but after several other prominent corrupt officials are also gunned down, and with the same M.O.was Regan, The Forces of Good begin working against The Forces of Evil to free the framed prisoner. This fairly early sound era film has been released upon an Alpha Entertainment DVD, and offers adequate visual and audio quality, although the original design of the piece is weakened by overzealous and poorly accomplished cutting, especially of those scenes depicting the railroading of Butler on a charge of public immorality. The script, by neophyte director Charles Roberts, is built upon a bromidic foundation and a complement of able acting talent is squandered to make a series of hackneyed episodes. Between the clichéd scenario and an extremely low budget, the largely accomplished cast, most of whom are well up to form, cannot lift the film above a state of mediocrity. Acting laurels go to Knapp, whose sprightly playingButler&#39;s secretary isartlessone might desire. Strong turns are additionally contributed by Mischa Auer and Foster.
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