King of the Underworld

King of the Underworld (1938)

Genres - Drama  |   Release Date - Jan 14, 1939 (USA - Unknown)  |   Run Time - 69 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hans J. Wollstein

A remake of Dr. Socrates (1935), this middling melodrama features Kay Francis as Carol Nelson, a medical doctor blaming gangster Joe Gurney (Humphrey Bogart) for the death of her husband (John Eldredge) during a police raid. Determined to get even, Dr. Nelson sets up practice in a small town where a couple of Gurney's henchmen are serving time. And sure enough, Gurney is soon in dire need of Carol's help after being wounded in a jailhouse break. Convincing the gang boss and his men that they all suffer from eye infections, the good doctor proceeds to blind the mobsters with adrenaline eye drops and then calls the cops. Warner Bros. used the general idea a third time in Bullet Scars (1942), yet another B-movie.

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Keywords

killing, arrest, assistance, blindness [physical], booking, doctor/nurse, escape, family-member, gambling, gangster, help, hospital, husband, informer, medical, murder, police, practice [professional], prison, questioning [police interrogation], revenge, search, shoot-out, surgery, underworld, warning, weapons, witness, wound [injury], writing, king