She's Dangerous (1937)

Cesar Romero is a racketeer who has gone upscale. Now he runs a security firm, selling stolen bonds beneath a veneer of respectability. He's impressed by Tala Birell, who runs a short con, and adds her to his gang, despite the objections of his crew. However, it turns out she's a mole, working for Jonathan Hale. While they're getting ready to fly to Denver, Romero murders Hale, steals the papers showing what she's doing, and then they take off, only to crash into the vacation home of Doctor Walter Pidgeon.

The movie starts off impressively, with a sequence showing the bond theft, and bumps along in a satisfying fashion until Pidgeon shows up. He's fine: solid, honest, good looking,and he gets to sing a little. It's simply that the movie veers a little too often and a little too clumsily. At first it's a light-hearted gangster comedy; then it turns into a serious romantic triangle between Birell and Pidgeon, who love each other, and Romero, who's still wacky about her, but in a possessive, angry way. Then it' a murder trial and she is on her way to the electric chair.

Tala Birell had been a success on stage in Europe and had come to the US about 1933. This was her big role, and six writers and two directors had mucked up the story. Even Walter Brennan and Warren Hymer as comic relief in their standard modes don't disguise the joints, as the story shifts and the focus changes from one character to another.