Crime Ring ** (1938, Allan Lane, Frances Mercer) – Classic Movie Review 11,666

Director Leslie Goodwins’s 1938 RKO Pictures American crime drama film release Crime Ring stars Allan Lane and Frances Mercer.

A fairly good cast helps to shore up a minor crime thriller about the cub reporter Joe Ryan (Lane)’s undercover exposé of a ring of fake clairvoyants forcing sad wealthy clients to invest in phony stocks to defraud them of their money.

Mercer plays Judy Allen, the resting actress whom Ryan (Lane) gets to help him in his enquiries. Charles Trowbridge plays the sightless seer Marvin, who leads the ring of phony fortune tellers who are in league with racketeers.

The screenplay written by Gladys Atwater and J Robert Bren, based on a story by Reginald Taviner, tells an unlikely and predictable yarn, but at least the film is interesting and inoffensive.

It was produced and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, released on July 8, 1938. It runs 70 minutes.

It is partly remade as Bunco Squad (1950).

Also notable in the cast are Clara Blandick, Inez Courtney, Bradley Page, Ben Welden, Walter Miller, George Irving, Leona Roberts, Charles Trowbridge, Stanley Blystone, Paul Fix, Mary Field, Byron Foulger, Jonathan Hale, Jack Mulhall, Harry Tyler and Jack Rice.

The cast are Allan Lane as Joe Ryan, Frances Mercer as Judy Allen, Clara Blandick as Phoebe Sawyer, Inez Courtney as Kitty, Bradley Page as Lionel Whitmore, Ben Welden as Nate, Walter Miller as Jenner, Frank M Thomas as Thomas Redwine, Jack Arnold as Buzzell, Morgan Conway as Ray Taylor, George Irving as Clifton, Leona Roberts as Mrs. Wharton, Charles Trowbridge as Marvin, Tom Kennedy as Dummy, Paul Fix as Slim, and Jack Mulhall as Brady.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,666

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