Inside the Law

A small gang of pickpockets and small-time tricksters decide to head out to California for the wealthy suckers. When Wallace Ford lifts a drunk's wallet and discovers it's an introduction to take over a small-town bank, they decide their opportunity has come.

I'm very fond of movies about confidence tricksters, but there was almost nothing to amuse me in this slack effort from director Hamilton McFadden. The script by Jack Natteford seemed to offer opportunities for comedic or serious ornamentation, but there is little indication that these opportunities were taken. People speak their lines swiftly and flatly. Everything seems to be dedicated to the issue of getting through the plot points as quickly as possible, despite the presence of a few old-timers capable of amusing the audience, like Lafe McKee, starting to slow down after thirty years in the movies (he would make only three, uncredited appearances on screen over the next six years) and Harry Holman. McFadden would direct one more movie, three years later, It's an inept time-waster from PRC.