James "Brick" Davis gives up his law practice to join the Department of Justice (FBI) following the murder of Buchanan, department agent and Brick's former college roommate. Once arriving in Washington for training, Brick is given a hard time by McCord, the officer in charge, but McCord thinks Brick has the makings of a great agent, even though McCord uncovers the fact that Brick's education was paid for by McKay, a racketeer, who now wants to get out of the rackets. Leggett, who was one of the people McKay sold his interests to, is now Public Enemy number one, following a mob shootout with the G-Men. The agency gets Congress to pass laws that allow the FBI to cross state lines, carry ammunition, make kidnapping and bank robbery federal crimes, and others to strengthen the agency. Leggett is captured and the FBI next goes after Collins, who is hiding out at McKay's hotel in Wisconsin. A shootout ensues, McKay and several of Collins' gang is killed, but the head gangster gets away. Can Brick and McCord apprehend Collins, before he kills his wife (a former flame of Brick and the person who gave away Collins' location to the police) and also kills McCord's sister, Kay (who Brick is sweet on)? Good film from Warner Bros. trying to sanitize Cagney's character from his earlier gangster pictures. Keighley's direction makes good use of all the shootouts which spare little and do paint a decent picture of the FBI's problems during its infancy. Cagney still manages to play the tough guy very well, even though this time he's on the side of law and order. Dvorak is sympathetic as Jean. Lindsay is OK, but she is not given much time to establish much character and when she does, she becomes the stereotypical love interest for Cagney. Much of the last half-hour of the film does seem rushed as compared to the first hour. Rating, 7.
