PUBLIC HERO NUMBER 1
dir. J. Walter Ruben, 1935
United States, 89 min.
In English

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 5 10PM
MONDAY NOVEMBER 17 7:30PM
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 22 MIDNIGHT

Shot by renowned cinematographer Gregg Toland and loosely inspired by the real-life antics of bank robber John Dillinger, PUBLIC HERO NUMBER 1 follows undercover FBI agent Jeff Crane (Chester Morris) as he breaks Purple Gang affiliate Sonny Black (Joseph Calleia) out of jail. Through a series of mishaps, Crane encounters the persistently chipper and eccentric Maria Theresa "Terry" O'Reilly, who's on her own mission to find her lost brother "Dinkie"... who just so happens to look a lot like Sonny. Simultaneously thrilling and witty, PUBLIC HERO NUMBER 1 would later be remade into THE GET-AWAY, another proto-noir classic.

The latest of the G-Men melodramas is a rattling good show, equally effective in its snarling violence and in its humor.
--Andre Sennwald