George Bancroft is a gun man for a New York mob. When he ignores his draft notice, the MPs grab him, and the next we see of him, he's in France, slagging his lieutenant, Morgan Farley, as a coward. Farley hates Bancroft for his base mind, but admires his bravery, as Bancroft gets the Croix de Guerre and a promotion to major. Farley dies in his arms on the battlefield. After the Armistice, Bancroft goes to Farley's town to speak to his father, O. P. Heggie, and pretty sister, Esther Ralston. Impressed by Bancroft's bravery, they make him head of the local police force with a remit to clean out the gangs that have arisen. Bancroft sets to the job, but cuts a deal with his old gang leader, Warner Oland, to rob three banks at once.
It's still early days for sound at Paramount's West Coast studio, with the dialogue declamatory and buzzy, but under the direction of John Cromwell, the visuals are strikingly done under cinematographer Roy Hunt. The battle scenes, shot wild from a moving crane, are exciting and well covered by sound effects, and the post-war sequence showing Bancroft's evolution are believable.
