Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

sol1218 ****SPOILERS**** Cheaply made and photographed with many of the night action scenes in it so lacking of any kind of decent lighting that their almost unwatchable the film "Paper Bullets" or its DVD released title "Crime,Inc" has the distinction of having Alan Ladd in it in one of his first more then just bit part roles. Ladd plays Jimmy Kelly an undercover NY cop impersonating mob kingpin Bill Dugan. That fact that Dugan is behind bars in NY's Tombs Detention Center doesn't seem to alert his gang whom Jimmy Kelly has infiltrated. That's until he comes out of hiding or police protection and testifies against his startled partners in crime in open court at the very end of the film. But it's Joan Woodbury as convicted hit & run driver Rita Adams who takes center stage here as the person who took the rap for the crime that her drunken boyfriend Harold DeWitt, Philip Trent, committed.Having her gangster dad Jim Adams, Kenneth Harlam, who's a stool pigeon for the police gunned down, Mafia style, right in front of her eyes when she was 12 Rita was brought up in an orphanage and when she reached adulthood had trouble getting a job because of her dad's criminal record. Making ends meet by robbing unsuspecting men while hitchhiking and occasionally knocking off banks and check cashing joints Rita decided to go straight by getting a job at a local night club, doing all kinds off odd jobs there, and hooking up with Harold DeWitt who's pop Clarence, Gorge Pembroke, is one of the most prominent lawyers in town.Told by her lawyer Bruce King, Dayant Washburn, that if she pleads guilty to Harol's hit & run his pop Clarence DeWitt will do all he can to get her off the hook. As it turned out she in fact has the book thrown at her and given a one to five year sentence in woman's prison instead. Now with nothing to lose after getting out of prison Rita makes it a point to shake down Clarence DeWitt for big bucks in blackmailing him in her revealing that his son Harold, who had since been killed in a car accident, was the person whom she took the rap for.****SPOILERS**** It's never quite brought out in the movie just how Rita got herself involved with the Dugan Mob that Clarence DeWitt was secretly a member of. It may well have been her involvement with DeWitt that sucked her into becoming a member of the Dugan Mob without her actually knowing about it. Despite getting again convicted along with her fellow mob members, including Clarence DeWitt, on 11 felony counts including racketeering jury and wiriness tampering as well as murder Rita did end up getting her wish come true. That's by having a park built her honor for young kids to spend their free time playing stick & hand ball among other games and not get themselves involved in the world of crime. And thus have them develop a healthy attitude towards life which Rita never did or had a chance to have. As for Alan Ladd he went on to bigger and better things or movie roles that established him as one of the top Hollywood actors in both the 1940's & 1950's.

T Y Nothing in this movie's title (um, either title), in the casting, in the script, or in the direction suggests this movie is about a criminal moll. The most accurate title for this would be 'Lady Gangster.' The audience for it? Who knows? My head hurt after trying to figure out who the protagonist was ...after trying to figure out where the plot was going ...and after trying to figure out why characters would do the insane things they do so naturally in this movie. And it has the perennial problem of most 'Chick Noirs': What is the genre? It's a girl's aspirational movie... It's a revenge picture... It's a political corruption movie... It's a melodrama... it's a romance... etc. It's all over the place.Not one line in the movie suggests how Rita (the eventual main character) transforms from gullible sap to mob Queenpin. Psychology? That's for suckers, pal. The only way this movie might have worked is if they had cast a pushy, contemptible, low-class, gum-smacking harlot in the lead role. Rita's behavior as written in the script? Predatory! Desperate! Rita's behavior as performed by Joan Woodbury? Sweetness and sunlight. Woodbury's Rita is waaaay too intelligent and polite (and cheerful, and well-adjusted) to be anywhere near this scenario.I'm with everyone else who asked more than once during this goofy movie, 'Wait... what did she just do?'. But I think I'm in the minority in that I began to find its utter incompetence more than a little funny, and sort of charming. Rita's sociopath/crimespree made me laugh out loud. It's completely out of left field. Just put on a wig, go out to your own street corner, and look for someone to hold up! Oh yeah, she's a criminal mastermind. Or when Rita's sister sings a cut-rate song in a nightclub; then sits down to some smoothy telling her "You'll never have to worry in life" ha ha ha.No two scenes in this movie are headed to the same destination. But it's still more entertaining than the inept noirs D.O.A., and 'The Man who Cheated Himself.' Obtuse, screwy, unintentionally funny. Jack LaRue looks quite a bit like Tony Shaloub.

wes-connors As a young lass, beautiful Joan Woodbury (as Rita Adams) was orphaned, after her "stool pigeon" father was shot to death. As a young woman, Ms. Woodbury finds herself struggling to keep a job, as her murdered father's ex-convict status makes Woodbury a bad business risk. Woodbury rooms with understanding songstress Linda Ware (as Donna Andrews), who advises Woodbury to get in touch with old orphanage friends John Archer (as Bob Elliott) and Jack La Rue (as Mickey Roman). But, none of her friends can help when Woodbury is the victim of a scam, which lands her in prison. Upon release, Woodbury decides to give the male mobsters a run for their money… Re-titled "Gangs, Inc.", this is an obviously weak, cheap mobster melodrama. Still, it's a lot of fun to watch Woodbury work wonders with inferior material. She plays the innocent growing more sophisticated "Rita" quite convincingly; and, she tosses in a great bit as a blonde hooker. Woodbury must be added to the list of unfortunately underutilized Hollywood actresses of the past. "Paper Bullets" also features an early Alan Ladd (as Jimmy Kelly aka Bill Dugan). Ms. Ware, who sang the hit "An Apple for the Teacher" with Bing Crosby, sings a couple of fair '40s numbers nicely. But, mainly, it's Woodbury's show.**** Paper Bullets (1941) Phil Rosen ~ Joan Woodbury, Linda Ware, Alan Ladd

davemed Fellow noir devotees, be not deceived, this is a stinker...poorly filmed, poorly acted and there is nothing...nothing here for the film buff looking for yet another solid B-movie from the goldmine of the 40's & 50's era of classics. I gave it a try based on the relatively high rating on IMDb. There's no accounting for taste, but I found nothing in this movie to recommend to other IMDb members. This is a classic example of having watched a movie and feeling like you have been cheated out of x number of minutes that it took the movie to get to its thankful demise. To have Alan Ladd on the cover of the DVD/tape is nearly fraud, he is on camera less than two minutes and has almost no dialogue! This isn't This Gun For HIre folks...it is a classic in the lousy sense of the studios cranking out fodder on no budget...We all search for the great ones... save your time on Gangs, Inc./Paper Bullets...it is lousy!