In connection with my review title, we now see that salesman George Raft is holding a tennis racket, which is the sort of racket he's talking about. Surprise!
This was the 2nd of 3 pairings of tough guy Raft and perennial tough luck lady with those big soulful eyes: Sylvia Sydney. I enjoyed both of them in these crime-oriented films, Sylvia with her easy-going beauty, and Raft with his handsome stylishness and edginess. Unfortunately, in the late 30s, Raft killed his career as a notable leading man by rejecting a series of roles in pictures that turned out to be popular. His up and coming competitor for these types of roles: Humphrey Bogart, took them and finally became a star. Who's to choose between them? Both had their distinctive looks and natural charisma. Raft tipped his hat to the left, while Bogey tipped his to the right. Was Raft left-handed?
Raft and Sylvia are cast as employees of Morris((Harry Carey) department store. Kind-hearted Morris likes to give ex-cons and parolees a fighting chance to rehabilitate their lives honestly, thus he mixes them with those without a criminal record. His wife doesn't like this, saying "They were born that way", implying that they can't be rehabilitated. Raft is an ex-con, and Sylvia is an parolee. Initially, neither knows this. They are attracted to each other, and pretty soon they get a marriage certificate, although Sylvia knows it's illegal for a parolee to get married(at least, not without the permission of her parole officer).
Later, Sylvia gets in trouble with Raft because some of his ex-gang members tell him the truth about her. Later, she's in double trouble, because Raft surmises that she must have somehow learned about the plan by his old gang to rob the department store(Actually, she essentially guessed that is what one of the gang members was trying to tell her). She tells Morris, who is then waiting with armed guards when the gang breaks in. Morris promises them leniency if they will listen to a speech by Sylvia. Like a schoolmarm lecturing her unruly students, she tries to convince them that crime doesn't pay, financially as well as the added risk of being sent back to prison. She uses a convenient blackboard to detail her calculations of the various costs of a heist and their probable individual financial gains to prove her point. Afterward, Raft is not moved, so she flees home, where she packs her things to move elsewhere. Meanwhile, Raft has had a sudden change of heart(very unlikely) and buys her some perfume, then goes to their apartment. But, Sylvia already had left, leaving a goodbye note.
Raft somehow(?) learns who and where Sylvia's parole officer is, and explains his distress. The PO says he knows where she went, but promised not to tell. He also tells him that they aren't legally married, because she is still on parole. Also, she is pregnant........Raft gathers his buddies and tells them to spread out to find her. No luck for quite sometime(apparently quite a few months, although our impression is that it isn't that long), until Raft's friend Gimpy announces that he found her in the hospital, ready to deliver a baby. The gang rushes there, and finds that she has already delivered, and is fine. Raft and Silvia make up, and Silvia suggests they get married legally, since her probation period is over. The film ends with their marriage, the gang treating her like a queen.
It's a good story, by me, albeit with some faulty critical turning points or bazaar scenes. It illustrates the dangers of hiring known ex-cons or parolees, and the limited hope of reforming them, as a whole. Nonetheless, ex-cons need more people or governments like Morris to give them a chance to go straight.
