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  • 'B' pictures often have titles that don't accurately match their content; and 'Police Bullets' imputes more muscle to the long arm of the law than is anywhere in evidence in the film itself. The cops instead wring their hands at their inability to bring racketeer Johnny Reilly (Milburn Stone) to book, since his slick mouthpiece Slater (Tristram Coffin) is always one step ahead of them. Slater advises Reilly, however, that in order to cover his tracks he needs to burn his books (prompting from henchman Warren Hymer the appalled exclamation that his boss is starting to turn into a Nazi)!

    Having already shown his calibre as a master criminal by leaving his wallet at the scene of one of his outrages, fate sends Reilly's way Prof. J. Thomas Quincy (John Archer), a paleontologist possessed of a "photographic mind" (he never calls it a "photographic memory") that temporarily solves the problem of where to store Reilly's incriminating records where they will be safe from the law. Fortunately for the police, Reilly already has his hands full with a dispute with rival racketeer Duke Talbot (Charles Jordan) which makes it easier for their undercover girl Donna Wells (Joan Marsh, barely recognisable as the baby-faced platinum blonde she was ten years earlier) to insinuate herself into his office as his new secretary.

    Although we see two law-abiding citizens ruthlessly murdered, the thing is played for laughs, and the resemblance of the diminutive Reilly and his gormless henchman Gabby Walsh (Warren Hymer) to Looney Tunes desperados Rocky and Mugsy may not be entirely accidental. The usual cartoonish violence (aided by Mack Stengler's dramatic photography) suitably complements slapdash attention to detail like Reilly shooting Duke in the hand, only to have him using it soon afterwards - good as new - to punch the hero.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I am surprised that this little crime film has not been commented yet. Directed by the B film maker Jean Yarbrough, it is not a masterpiece, but remains Worth watching for a feature of this kind. A few accents of comedy, but not at a scale where it affects the whole tale, a gangster film, after all, about racketeers. The topic has already been told above, so I won't repeat it. A rather unusual story, if you compare to another movies from this era. And the running time is not too long, only 62 minutes. The quality is quite good, from a TCM taping off. Thousands others of this kind remain to be seen, maybe lost somewhere. Let's cross our fingers.