The Devil's Party

Last updated
The Devil's Party
The Devil's Party.jpg
Directed by Ray McCarey
Written byRoy Chanslor
Based onHell's Kitchen Has a Pantry
by Borden Chase
Produced by Edmund Grainger
Starring Victor McLaglen
William Gargan
Paul Kelly
Cinematography Milton R. Krasner
Edited by Philip Cahn
Music by Charles Previn
Production
company
Universal Pictures
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • May 20, 1938 (1938-05-20)
Running time
65 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Devil's Party is a 1938 American crime film directed by Ray McCarey based on the Borden Chase novel Hell's Kitchen Has a Pantry.

Contents

Plot

Marty Malone is a member of a street gang called the "Death Avenue Cowboys", consisting of poor children in Hell's Kitchen, New York. As the gang try to steal fruit from a fruit warehouse, Marty starts a fire to distract the watchmen, unfortunately it turns into a real blaze and he is caught by the police. Even though the police give him a rough time in questioning, he refuses to say the names of any other gang members, thus saving his friends and accomplices from capture. Marty is sent to a reformatory for delinquents.

Many years go by after that, and now Marty is the proud owner of the Cigarette Club, which is a cabaret and casino in Manhattan. In tending to his business, he sends men to strong-arm a customer reluctant to pay a gambling debt. The goons, Sam and Frank Diamond, beat the customer up, accidentally killing him. They try to make his death look as if a neon sign fell on him.

The police emergency squad investigating the death includes brothers Joe and Mike O'Mara, who graduated from Marty's childhood gang. Authorities dismiss the death as an accident, but Joe, eager to become a police detective, believes it was murder when he finds evidence that the support that gave way allowing the sign to fall was clearly cut rather than breaking with age.

That evening there is a reunion dinner at Marty's Cigarette Club, with the boyhood friends attending, including the O'Mara's. Jerry Donovan is now a priest, and Helen McCoy has become a performer at the club. Helen has spurned Marty's many proposals because she loves Mike O'Mara. Mike dances with Helen all evening.

Brother Joe, striking out with the ladies, exits the dinner, returns to the scene of the murder, impatient to solve the crime he believes was committed. Diamond and Sam, having realized he may expose them, corner him and push him off the roof to his death.

Later that evening, Marty arrives on the scene and is upset his incompetent thugs have perpetrated the murders. The homicide bureau dismisses Joe's case as an accident, but Mike is unconvinced, and believes Joe's death is connected to the previous one. He is also guilt stricken he didn't accompany his brother to investigate his hunch on the incident that brought his death.

Diamond and Sam rob a jewelry store, set off a bomb next to Marty's club, and send notes to Mike incriminating Marty. Mike takes the bait, loses control and tries to kill Marty, but Jerry stops him, and Mike is arrested. Marty refuses to press charges, and also confesses his involvement to Jerry. He explains to Jerry that he never intended any deaths to occur.

Diamond and Sam plan to rob the Polar Gardensa popular ice skating ring, and force Marty to participate through kidnapping Helen who wisely informs Jerry of where she is going. Diamond and Sam alert Mike of the plan, hoping he will kill Marty. Mike again goes berserk, but Jerry again prevents Mike from killing Marty. In a shootout with the criminals, Marty dies taking a bullet intended for Mike. His death brings Mike and Helen together, and as Marty had requested, there is a playground built at Jerry's boys club in Marty's name.

Cast

Opening

The film opens with the following: "Hell's Kitchen – a section of New York, where, not so many years ago, the children of the slums made their playground in that grim street ... DEATH AVENUE." [1] A later intertitle reads: "An enduring friendship moves with the years to Hell's Kitchen's other boundary ... BROADWAY." [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch Schultz</span> American mobster (1901–1935)

Dutch Schultz was an American mobster based in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. He made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging and the numbers racket. Schultz's rackets were weakened by two tax evasion trials led by United States Attorney Thomas Dewey, and also threatened by fellow mobster Lucky Luciano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Clements</span> American actor (1926–1981)

Stanley Clements was an American actor and comedian, best known for portraying "Stash" in the East Side Kids film series, and group leader Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie in The Bowery Boys film series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westies</span> Irish-American organized crime gang

The Westies were a New York City-based Irish American organized crime gang, responsible for racketeering, drug trafficking, and contract killing. They were partnered with the Italian-American Mafia and operated out of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regis Toomey</span> American actor (1898–1991)

John Francis Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Armstrong (actor)</span> American actor (1890–1973)

Robert William Armstrong was an American film and television actor noted for playing Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He delivered the film's famous final line: "It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."

The Genna crime family, was a crime family that operated in Prohibition-era Chicago. From 1921 to 1925, the family was headed by the six Genna brothers, known as the Terrible Gennas. The brothers were Sicilians from the town of Marsala and operated from Chicago's Little Italy and maintained control over the Unione Siciliana. They were allies with fellow Italian gang the Chicago Outfit. After a bloody war led to their demise in the 1920s, the gang was eventually absorbed by the Chicago Outfit.

The Irish Mob is a usually crime family–based ethnic collective of organized crime syndicates composed of primarily ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangs – famously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, The Gangs of New York – the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial Midwest, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Jones (actor)</span> American actor (1927–2014)

Richard Percy Jones, known as Dick Jones or Dickie Jones, was an American actor and singer who achieved success as a child performer and as a young adult, especially in B-Westerns. In 1938, he played Artimer "Artie" Peters, nephew of Buck Peters, in the Hopalong Cassidy film The Frontiersman. He is also known as the voice of Pinocchio in Walt Disney's film of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Farrell MacDonald</span> American actor and director (1875–1952)

John Farrell MacDonald was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a four-decade career from 1911 to 1951, and directed forty-four silent films from 1912 to 1917.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Bowman</span> American outlaw biker and gangster (1949-2019)

Harry Joseph Bowman, also known as "Taco", was an American outlaw biker and gangster who served as the international president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club between 1984 and 1999. During his tenure as president, the club had chapters in more than 30 cities in the United States and some 20 chapters in at least four other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Detroit Partnership</span> Italian-American organized crime group

The Detroit Partnership is an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Detroit, Michigan. The family mainly operates in Detroit and the Greater Detroit area, as well as in other locations including Windsor, Ontario; Toledo, Ohio; and Las Vegas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kane Richmond</span> American actor (1906-1973)

Kane Richmond was an American film actor of the 1930s and 1940s, mostly appearing in cliffhangers and serials. He is best known today for his portrayal of the character Lamont Cranston in The Shadow films in addition to his leading role in the successful serials Spy Smasher and Brick Bradford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yves Trudeau (biker)</span> Canadian outlaw biker and hitman (1946–2008)

Yves Trudeau, also known as "Apache" and "The Mad Bomber", was a Canadian outlaw biker, gangster and contract killer. A former member of the Hells Angels North chapter in Laval, Quebec, Trudeau was the club's leading assassin and a major participant in multiple biker conflicts throughout Canadian history, including the Popeyes–Devils Disciples War, the Satan's Choice–Popeyes War and the First Biker War. Frustrated by cocaine addiction and his suspicion that his fellow gang members wanted him dead, he became a Crown witness after the Lennoxville massacre. In exchange, he received a lenient sentence – life in prison but eligible for parole after seven years – for the killing of 43 people from September 1973 to July 1985.

The Lennoxville massacre, or Lennoxville purge, was a mass murder which took place at the Hells Angels clubhouse in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, on March 24, 1985. Five members of the Hells Angels North Chapter, were shot dead. The North Chapter was led by 2 of its original and most influential members Laurent "L'Anglais" Viau and Yves "Apache" Trudeau. The Lennoxville Massacre divided rival outlaw motorcycle gangs in Quebec, leading to the formation of the Rock Machine club in 1986, a rival to the Angels in the 1990s. The name "Lennoxville massacre" is a misnomer since the killings took place in Sherbrooke. The misconception that the killings took place in Lennoxville arose from the fact the victims had stayed and partied at a motel in Lennoxville before they went to the Sherbrooke clubhouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noel Madison</span> American actor (1897–1975)

Noel Madison was an American character actor in the 1930s and 1940s and appeared in 75 films, often as a gangster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bacchus Motorcycle Club</span> Outlaw motorcycle club

The Bacchus Motorcycle Club (BMC) is an Outlaw motorcycle club in Canada. Founded during 1972 in Albert County, New Brunswick. Bacchus MC has since increased its influence, opening fifteen chapters in five Canadian provinces. It is currently the third largest Canadian established 1% motorcycle club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club</span> Outlaw motorcycle club

Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club (SCMC) was a Canadian outlaw motorcycle club that was once the dominant outlaw club in Ontario, with twelve chapters based in the province, and another in Montreal, Quebec, at its peak strength in 1977. Satan's Choice grew to more than 400 members by 1970, making it the second largest outlaw motorcycle club in the world, behind only the Hells Angels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yves Buteau</span> Canadian outlaw biker and gangster (1951–1983)

Yves "Le Boss" Buteau was a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster, known for being the first national president of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Canada. Buteau began his life of organized crime as a member of the Montreal-based Popeyes biker gang and, by the mid-1970s, he became the club's president. He was instrumental in the Popeyes' merger with the Hells Angels in 1977, and played a significant role in establishing the Angels as a major criminal force in Quebec. In 1983, Buteau was murdered by a drug dealer with ties to a rival gang, the Outlaws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Walker (actor)</span> American actor (1904–1980)

Warren Reynolds "Ray" Walker was an American actor, born in Newark, New Jersey, who starred in Baby Take a Bow (1934), Hideaway Girl (1936), The Dark Hour (1936), The Unknown Guest (1943) and It's A Wonderful Life (1946).

References

Sources