King of the Underworld (1939] **1/2

Release date: January 14, 1939

Running time: 67 minutes

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Kay Francis

Director: Lewis Seiler

Joe Gurney (Humphrey Bogart) is the head gangster in this run of the mill crime drama from the late thirties. When one of his men is saved by the combined efforts of married couple Drs. Niles and Carole Nelson (Kay Francis), Joe visits Niles and offers him a large sum of money for the work. Niles, who struggles with a gambling problem, takes the money and is instantly under Joe’s thumb. On top of his gambling debts, Niles has been neglecting his practice and has garnered some contention between himself and his wife and staff. 

Joe calls in Niles, using the payoff as leverage to force Niles to make a house call for another of his teams’s injuries and, while there the police raid the place leading to Niles’s death. The DA is intent on making a show of things and so they charge Carole with association with the gangster leaving her with just three months to clear her name or lose her license. With no other options in front of her she schemes to get close to Joe and his gang in an attempt to take the man down and exonerate herself. Meanwhile, Joe, who has a literal Napoleon complex, has kidnapped a hitchhiking writer, Bill, and is forcing him to ghost write his autobiography. Bill and Carole had recently met and she feels that she must also rescue the man from the clutches of the gang.

And thus plays out the somewhat underwhelming drama that is King of the Underworld. It is watchable, though, thanks to a over-the-top performance by Bogart who seems to be enjoying being here a lot more than any of the other stars. The same goes for his goons who all come across as caricatures. It robs the group of any real menace. Even the outlandish finale is mostly void of tension because of the absurdity of the villains. There is the distinct impression that director Lewis Seiler was trying to make a legitimate gangster film but he has painted his characters so broadly that. It’s hard to take them seriously. It’s too straight to be a parody film and too silly to be a suspense.

While it’s true this film is not very good it is not without its merits. Watching Bogart get insulted without realizing it is a hoot. Carole likes to use big words around him just so she can get away with the insults. The fact that not a single one of Joe’s gang recognizes the insults is equally funny. Or perhaps they did and didn’t dare speak up. Either way it injects the film with some levity and keeps it moving. These scenes are also the only moments where Kay Francis stands out. Outside of her interactions with Joe she is a boring character that exists simply to move the plot from A to B. Her relationship with Bill in the second half of the film is poorly developed and the final scene with them feels tacked on and unearned. 

This could have been a better film had more effort gone into making it. As it is it’s simply just a hastily churned out bit of entertainment that occasionally works but mostly just fizzles out into mediocrity. Hollywood churned out hundreds of such films in the day simply to get something into theaters and make a quick buck. It accomplishes that but could have been so much more.