Bad Company | |
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Theatrical poster for film | |
Directed by | Tay Garnett |
Written by | Jack Lait (novel) Tay Garnett Tom Buckingham |
Produced by | Charles R. Rogers Harry Joe Brown |
Starring | Helen Twelvetrees Ricardo Cortez |
Cinematography | Arthur C. Miller |
Edited by | Claude Berkeley |
Music by | Arthur Lange |
Distributed by | RKO Pathé |
Release date |
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Running time | 76 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Bad Company is a 1931 American pre-Code gangster film directed and co-written by Tay Garnett with Tom Buckingham based on Jack Lait's 1930 novel Put on the Spot. It stars Helen Twelvetrees and Ricardo Cortez. Told from the view of a woman, the working titles of this film were The Gangster's Wife and The Mad Marriage.[2] Unlike many static early sound films, Garnett includes several scenes using a moving camera climaxing in a gigantic assault on an office building with both sides using heavy machine guns.
Rich and beautiful Helen King is about to marry Steve Carlyle, a wealthy young professional. Unknown to Helen and her family, Steve is a legal advisor to a megalomaniac gangster Goldie Gorio.
Steve wishes to leave the rackets but Goldie reintroduces him to his future father-in-law, a rival gangster where both parties see the marriage as a symbol of peace and an end of violence in their transactions. Steve remains with Goldie and fills in for him to a visit to a rival gangster's boat where he is ambushed and nearly killed by their machine gun. Helen vows revenge on Goldie.