Crime Ring

Handsome Allan Lane, who was actually a western star, leads the cast of "Crime Ring," a 1938 B movie.

The film concerns fake fortunetellers who win the confidence of clients and then get them to part with their money by buying mining stocks which are worthless. The crime ring also has the fortunetellers pay protection and get 10% of the take.

Lane is a reporter determined to bust up the racket. He enlists the help of an old millionairess (Clara Blandick, better known to you as Auntie Em) and a young woman, the beautiful Frances Mercer, who poses as a psychic as the session is recorded.

Decent film, good story, fast moving, with real pros holding it up.

What's interesting is the people who are uncredited here. One is Paul Fix, who was in every television western as an old man - he's younger here, but his face and voice are unmistakable. Actually most of the cast is listed as uncredited, and you'll see lots of early TV faces.

A word about Clara Blandick, who was primarily a stage actress but managed to make 115 films, including playing Auntie Em in the Wizard of Oz. Eighty-one years old, in pain from arthritis, and nearly blind, she went to church one day, came home, and committed suicide. Her note said she was embarking on her greatest adventure. Hope so.

This is a predictable, yet very enjoyable, crime drama about a "protection" racket for fortune-tellers. It's a fast moving little programmer with a wonderful cast of veteran supporting actors.

Allan Lane, playing a newspaper reporter, is the leading man. The leading lady was a nobody with a pretty face. In fact, you might as well say that the 'leading-lady' was Clara Blandick. She was cast as a crusty old multi-millionaire who, as the reporter's friend, ultimately helps him break up the 'crime-ring' of the film's title.

The story in a nut-shell: A newspaper reporter goes after a "crime ring" that 'protects' the city's bogus fortune tellers in return for 10% of their take.

But that's not the crime-ring's main source of income. They use the fortune tellers to 'steer' gullible victims to the crime-ring's spurious mining-stock salesmen, as well as other rip-offs.

This "Crime-Ring" indulges in fraud, extortion, abduction, murder--- well, you get the idea....

The background and supporting roles are played with great skill by a cast which is largely (and amazingly) uncredited!

B-Movie devotees will spot some of the genre's 'greats' in fairly meaty supporting roles, yet their names failed to appear anywhere in the credits. For example- the great 'comedy-relief' supporting actor, Tom Kennedy, appears throughout this film (AS the film's comedy-relief, natch), but is no where in the credits!

Also uncredited were B-movie & short-film vets Jack Rice & Byron Foulger.

This is a short, zippy, well-acted little film with a great cast. It follows a standard 'formula', so there are no surprises, but it's great fun to watch and I highly recommend it.

Crime Ring (1938)

** (out of 4)

Bland crime-drama from RKO has a few interesting spots but not enough to make it a winner. Reporter Joe Ryan (Allan Lane) decides to bring down a ring of fake fortune tellers so he hires a few actresses to pose as them in order to crack the group of thieves running it all. CRIME RING isn't a bad movie but it's certainly far from a good one and there's no question that the studio wasn't putting too much effort into this picture, which more than likely was a second or third bill. At just 70-minutes the movie is paced good enough to where it never gets boring and there's no doubt that there are a few interesting ideas brought up in the screenplay. I thought the entire racket of fake fortune tellers could have made for a more interesting story but it seems the writers weren't trying to do anything special and instead they were just going by-the-numbers. The majority of these crime picture clichés are on full display and the twists and turns in the story are never going to catch you off guard. Lane isn't too bad as the reporter and he's at least fun enough to help keep the film moving. I also enjoyed Frances Mercer as the main actress who helps the D.A. and Clara Blandick is good as a grieving wife and mother trying to connect with her dead loved ones. CRIME RING is mainly going to appeal to fans of "B" movies as all others should just stay clear.

I was bored to death to watch this though rare gem from RKO Pictures vault. It is are and that's all, talkative, and very long to endure despite the short length. Totally uninteresting, believe me, you will lose your time watching it. I have seen tons of little B pictures as this one, and far more worth seeing. Allan Lane was more brilliant - IF he was brilliant once - in Republic Pictures westerns of the forties and early fifties. Leslie Goodwins was also a B director whose films rarely emerged from the hundreds produced by Hollywood industry. I don't know what to add more about this forgettable movie.