Bull Bransom (Stanley Fields) is an uncultured and obnoxious hood who heads the Waterfront Protection Association....a respectable name for an organization of crooks who shake down the businesses along the docks. Folks there either pay up...or Bransom's men make sure bad things happen to them! While many suspect Bransom is behind all this, local politicians protect him from prosecution. Despite this, a local reporter, Tim Haydon (John Garfield), is convinced that his exposees will lead to Bull's arrest. And, eventually, Bransom's actions do lead to him being sent to prison at Blackwell's Island, New York. But Bull isn't content to do his time and return to his old ways. Instead, he plans on running his old business from behind bars AND live like a king while in jail. Soon, with the help of local crooked officials, Bull does exactly that....arranging murders and living as if he was the warden of Blackwell's Island. The dogged reporter is determined to get the goods on Bransom and soon he punches a special prosecutor just so he can get himself locked up at Blackwell's as well!
The main reason to watch this film is because it's so entertaining...much of it thanks to Fields' bigger than life and exciting role as Bull Bransom. John Garfield is fine in the lead...but he's easily overshadowed by Fields...and rarely is there a more enjoyable mobster in a 1930s film. Realistic? Probably not...but always entertaining.