King of the underworld
(DVD)

Title from container.

Originally distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.

Originally released as a motion picture in 1939.

Dialogue director, Vincent Sherman; assistant director, Frank Heath; photography, Sid Hickox; art director, Charles Novi; editor, Frank Dewar; gowns, Orry-Kelly; music, Leo F. Forbstein; sound recording, E.A. Brown; technical advisor, Dr. Leo Schulman.

Humphrey Bogart (Joe Gurney); Kay Francis (Dr. Carol Nelson); James Stephenson (Bill Stevens); John Eldredge (Dr. Niles Nelson); Jessie Busley (Aunt Josephine); Arthur Aylesworth (Dr. Sanders); Raymond Brown (sheriff); Harland Tucker (Mr. Ames); Ralph Remley (Mr. Robert); Charles Foy (Slick); Murray Alper (Eddie); Joe Devlin (Porky); Elliott Sullivan (Mugsy); Alan Davis (Pete); John Harmon (Slats); John Ridgely (Jerry); Richard Bond (intern); Pierre Watkin (district attorney); Charles Trowbridge (Dr. Ryan); Edward Stanley (Dr. Jacobs); Herbert Heywood (Clem); Paul MacWilliams (anaesthetist); Richard Quine (student); Ralph Dunn (first policeman); Max Hoffman, Jr. (second policeman); Janet Shaw, Ann Robinson (nurses); Stuart Holmes (doorman); Lew Harvey (Chic); Edgar Dearing (detective); William Gould (chief of police); Davison Clark (foreman); Carl Stockdale (first villager); Nat Carr (second villager); Clem Bevans (third villager); Tom Wilson, Glen Cavender (deputies); Sidney Bracy (farmer); Lottie Williams (farmer's wife); Jimmy O'Gatty, Frank Bruno, Paul Panzer, Cliff Saum, Doc Stone (gangsters); Jerry Fletcher (young man); Peggy Moran (young man's wife); Francis Sayles (furniture store proprietor); Sherwood Bailey (boy); Al Lloyd (drug store clerk); Jack Mower, John Harron (G-men); Vera Lewis, Frank Orth.

"Dr. Niles Nelson, an inveterate horse player, is lured by the promise of easy money into becoming doctor to crime boss Joe Gurney and his gang. When Niles is killed by the police while attending to one of Gurney's men, his wife, Dr. Carol Nelson, falls under suspicion of also being in league with the gangsters. Under threat of having her license revoked, Carol is desperate to establish her innocence, and sets up her medical practice in the small town in which two of Gurney's gangsters have been imprisoned. Her plans go awry, however, when Gurney, who entertains delusions of Napoleonic grandeur, breaks into the jail and frees his men. Wounded in the jailbreak, Gurney calls upon Mary and forces her to bandage his arm. Also wounded in the jailbreak is down-and-out writer Bill Stevens, who had innocently accepted a ride from the notorious gangster. Carol befriends Bill, who is later taken prisoner by Gurney so that he can write the gangster's autobiography. When his wound worsens, Gurney sends for Carol. Realizing that the federal agents are coming to arrest her for her involvement with Gurney, Carol formulates a plan to capture the mobster and his henchmen. Convincing Gurney and his men that they have an eye infection, Carol temporarily blinds the mobsters with adrenaline eye drops and calls for the federal agents to close in. After a blinded Gurney is mowed down in a gun battle with the 'feds, ' Carol is exonerated and begins life anew with Bill"--AFI catalog, 1931-1940.

DVD, full-screen (4x3, 1.37:1) presentation; Dolby digital mono.