**SPOILERS** Coming home to America from a trip to the "old country" with and old fashion ask no questions young wife big time hood Joe Krozak, Edward G. Robinson, is back in business as he puts out a contract on the Kile Boys who've been muscling in on his Brooklyn rackets. Taking out three of the four Kile brothers in a hail of bullets Krozac will later in the movie pay dearly for not finishing off Acey Kile, Alan Baxter. Who'll be hounding him all throughout the film until he finally meets up with Krozac who he catches in a weak moment with his guard down.
With the State D.A not being able to indite the cunning Krozak on anything substantial the Feds then take a crack on him slapping Kozack with an air-tight tax evasion rap. That lands him in the "Big A" the Federal Prison on Alcatraz Island. While all this is going on Krozac's wife Talya, Rose Stradner, gave birth to Joe Jr the apple in Krozack's eye. Krozack hope's his boy will grow up to be as big a hoodlum, if not bigger, as he is and eventually take over his coast-to-coast crime syndicate and empire.
Two things happen that opens the very naive Talya's eyes about her husband and has her then leave him for another man former San Francisco sleazy tabloid reporter Paul North,James Stewart. When going to see Krozack in prison Talya is hurt over him slobbering over Joe Jr so much that he doesn't notice that she's even there. Later Talya gets very hurt when North,in order to get the "Big Story", slipped a toy gun on little Joe as his mom was holding him and had it photographed by his newspaper.
Talya going to the tabloid's office to complain about the treatment she and Joe Jr got from it's reporters is shocked to find out that her sweet and loving husband Joe Sr is the biggest and baddest gangster in America. Paul seeing how hurt and destroyed Talya is over what he did to her makes it up by quiting his job on the tabloid in protest and later marring Talya and adopting young Joe, renaming him Paul North Jr, as his step-son.
It's now ten years later and Joe Krozac is up for release and thinking that he'll slip back in to action as boss of his crime syndicate. Instead he has a big surprise coming in the form of his #1 and right-hand man Curly, Lionel Stander. Curly has been making big plans of how the syndicate is to do business over these last ten years and it's his boss Joe Krozac who doesn't figure in any of them.
Better then you would expect 1930's gangster flick with Joe Krozac finding out the hard way who his friends really are. In the end Krozac sees what a failure he would have been to his son Joe Jr, or Paul North Jr, if he weren't put behind bars and had him follow in his foot steps. Resentful at first to both Talya and Paul North for taking his young son away from him Krozac learns how they made Joe Jr, Douglas Scott, into an upstanding and law abiding young man with a bright future to look forward to. This compared to what he would have done by leading Little Joe into a life of crime and violence. With him ending up, like Joe Krozac, either behind bars or six feet under not by dying in bed but from the result of a police shoot-out or mob hit.
Instead of a welcoming committee from his gang members Krozac finds himself kidnapped and worked over by Curly & Co. in order to find out where he stashed millions of dollars of mob money just before he was sent up the river. Krozac being forced to talk when Joe, or Paul, Jr was kidnapped and threatened with death by the now Curly Gang who were later gunned down in a shoot-out with the cops. Thrown out in the cold, together with Joe Jr to find his way back home it was Krozac's stay with both his son and his former wife Talya and her new husband Paul North that made him finally see the light. But not in time to turn his criminal life around when his past, in the from of crippled and vengeful hoodlum Acey Kile, caught up with him one rainy night in a dark and lonely alley.
With the State D.A not being able to indite the cunning Krozak on anything substantial the Feds then take a crack on him slapping Kozack with an air-tight tax evasion rap. That lands him in the "Big A" the Federal Prison on Alcatraz Island. While all this is going on Krozac's wife Talya, Rose Stradner, gave birth to Joe Jr the apple in Krozack's eye. Krozack hope's his boy will grow up to be as big a hoodlum, if not bigger, as he is and eventually take over his coast-to-coast crime syndicate and empire.
Two things happen that opens the very naive Talya's eyes about her husband and has her then leave him for another man former San Francisco sleazy tabloid reporter Paul North,James Stewart. When going to see Krozack in prison Talya is hurt over him slobbering over Joe Jr so much that he doesn't notice that she's even there. Later Talya gets very hurt when North,in order to get the "Big Story", slipped a toy gun on little Joe as his mom was holding him and had it photographed by his newspaper.
Talya going to the tabloid's office to complain about the treatment she and Joe Jr got from it's reporters is shocked to find out that her sweet and loving husband Joe Sr is the biggest and baddest gangster in America. Paul seeing how hurt and destroyed Talya is over what he did to her makes it up by quiting his job on the tabloid in protest and later marring Talya and adopting young Joe, renaming him Paul North Jr, as his step-son.
It's now ten years later and Joe Krozac is up for release and thinking that he'll slip back in to action as boss of his crime syndicate. Instead he has a big surprise coming in the form of his #1 and right-hand man Curly, Lionel Stander. Curly has been making big plans of how the syndicate is to do business over these last ten years and it's his boss Joe Krozac who doesn't figure in any of them.
Better then you would expect 1930's gangster flick with Joe Krozac finding out the hard way who his friends really are. In the end Krozac sees what a failure he would have been to his son Joe Jr, or Paul North Jr, if he weren't put behind bars and had him follow in his foot steps. Resentful at first to both Talya and Paul North for taking his young son away from him Krozac learns how they made Joe Jr, Douglas Scott, into an upstanding and law abiding young man with a bright future to look forward to. This compared to what he would have done by leading Little Joe into a life of crime and violence. With him ending up, like Joe Krozac, either behind bars or six feet under not by dying in bed but from the result of a police shoot-out or mob hit.
Instead of a welcoming committee from his gang members Krozac finds himself kidnapped and worked over by Curly & Co. in order to find out where he stashed millions of dollars of mob money just before he was sent up the river. Krozac being forced to talk when Joe, or Paul, Jr was kidnapped and threatened with death by the now Curly Gang who were later gunned down in a shoot-out with the cops. Thrown out in the cold, together with Joe Jr to find his way back home it was Krozac's stay with both his son and his former wife Talya and her new husband Paul North that made him finally see the light. But not in time to turn his criminal life around when his past, in the from of crippled and vengeful hoodlum Acey Kile, caught up with him one rainy night in a dark and lonely alley.