Johnny Apollo (film)

Last updated
Johnny Apollo
Johnny-apollo-1940.jpg
Movie poster
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Screenplay by Philip Dunne
Rowland Brown
Story by Samuel G. Engel
Hal Long
Produced by Harry Joe Brown
Starring Tyrone Power
Dorothy Lamour
Cinematography Arthur S. Miller
(as Arthur Miller)
Edited byRobert Bischoff
Color process Black and white
Production
company
20th Century Fox
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • April 19, 1940 (1940-04-19)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Johnny Apollo is a 1940 American film noir crime film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Tyrone Power and Dorothy Lamour.

Contents

Plot

Bob Cain, Jr.'s stockbroker father, "Pop" Cain, is sentenced to prison for embezzlement of funds. Up until this time, the two were close, but Bob falls out with Pop over this situation and quits college to look for a job. He is unable to find one due to his father's notoriety. He finds work when he decides to use an alias, but is fired when this is discovered.

Later, gangster Mickey Dwyer, sentenced on the same day as Pop, is granted parole. Bob, disgusted with his father's lawyer, goes to see Dwyer's attorney, an old former judge named Emmett T. Brennan. Waiting outside Brennan's apartment, Bob, calling himself Johnny, meets the gangster's girlfriend, Lucky Dubarry. They chat and she is immediately attracted to him. Brennan arrives. Lucky pretends she knows Bob, and he, not wanting to disclose his identify at all, when asked by Brennan tells them both his full name is Johnny Apollo (taking the surname from the neon sign marquee visible through the window on the dance-club across the street). Lucky leaves, and Bob inquires of Brennan how to get Pop paroled. With money, he is told.

Dwyer arrives and asks about Johnny. Brennan 'vouches' for him. Dwyer, not wanting to be anywhere near police, asks Bob to go bail out one of his crew, offering a hundred dollars to Bob. Bob accepts the task.

Soon, Dwyer offers Apollo employment. Apollo decides to work for the gangster to raise the dough he needs. They commit various criminal acts (not shown). After accumulating much money, Bob visits his father in prison. They reconcile, and Bob talks of a forthcoming parole, so Pop is happy. But after he leaves, his father discovers from a guard that his son, 'Johnny Apollo', is now a criminal, and a disgusted Pop Cain wants nothing to do with him.

Brennan attempts to make a deal for Dwyer, offering the district attorney evidence on all of his crew, if all pending charges against Dwyer are dropped. The D.A. does not accept, but counteroffers: he will drop all pending charges against Apollo, in exchange for evidence on Dwyer. Brennan accepts, knowing Apollo is essentially a good man, and that Lucky is in love with him. He hands over damning evidence on Dwyer.

In retaliation, Dwyer murders Brennan. Bob, unaware and not believing Dwyer could murder the judge, with whom he was good friends, alibis Dwyer. Both he and Dwyer are sent to prison, using Brennan's evidence, the D.A. ignoring the deal he had with Brennan, due to Bob's recalcitrant attitude. A jailbreak is set in motion, but Lucky is able to sneak word of it to Pop, who prevents his son from getting involved. An angry Dwyer shoots Pop and knocks out Bob, but is then killed by guards.

Bob is blamed and faces a longer sentence, perhaps even execution. Pop recovers, however, and alibis his son. Bob serves his term, and on release finds his father waiting for him, along with Lucky.

Cast

Scene from the film Johnny Apollo.jpg
Scene from the film

Production

Lamour sings (no voice-overs) several songs in the film, including the 1938 hit song "They Say" by Edward Heyman, Paul Mann and Stephen Weiss. Miss Lamour also dances in nightclub scenes.

Quotes

"I'm leaving town". "Where to?". "As far as 20 bucks and a mink coat will take me".

Adaptations

The movie was adapted for Australian radio in 1942 with Ron Randell. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Costello</span> Italian-American mobster (1891-1973)

Frank Costello was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moshe Katsav</span> Israeli politician; 8th President of Israel (born 1945)

Moshe Katsav is an Israeli former politician who was the eighth President of Israel from 2000 to 2007. He was also a leading Likud member of the Israeli Knesset and a minister in its cabinet. He was the first Mizrahi Jew to be elected to the presidency, and second non-Ashkenazi president after Yitzhak Navon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rubin Carter</span> American boxer (1937–2014)

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for murder, until released following a petition of habeas corpus after almost 20 years in prison.

<i>Marked Woman</i> 1937 film directed by Lloyd Bacon

Marked Woman is a 1937 American dramatic crime film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, with featured performances by Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Rosalind Marquis, Mayo Methot, Jane Bryan, Eduardo Ciannelli and Allen Jenkins. Set in the underworld of Manhattan, Marked Woman tells the story of a woman who dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Lawrence</span> American actor (1910–2005)

Marc Lawrence was an American character actor who specialized in underworld types. He has also been credited as F. A. Foss, Marc Laurence and Marc C. Lawrence.

The Trenton Six is the group name for six African-American defendants tried for murder of an elderly white shopkeeper in January 1948 in Trenton, New Jersey. The six young men were convicted in August 1948 by an all-white jury of the murder and sentenced to death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Hale</span> Canadian-born film and television actor (1891–1966)

Jonathan Hale was a Canadian-born film and television actor.

Oregon v. Guzek, 546 U.S. 517 (2006), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not grant criminal defendants facing the death penalty the right to introduce new evidence of their innocence during sentencing that was not introduced during trial. Accordingly, states could constitutionally exclude such evidence from the sentencing phase of a capital trial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Tyler</span>

Gary Tyler, from St. Rose, Louisiana, is an African-American man who is a former prisoner at the Louisiana State Prison in Angola, Louisiana. He was convicted of the October 7, 1974 shooting death of a white 13-year-old boy and the wounding of another, on a day of violent protests by whites against black students at Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. He was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder at age 17 by an all-white jury; he received the mandatory death sentence for that crime, according to state law. When he entered Louisiana State Prison (Angola), he was the youngest person on death row.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Lucas</span> American crime figure

Frank Lucas was an American drug lord who operated in Harlem, New York City, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia. Lucas boasted that he smuggled heroin using the coffins of dead American servicemen, as depicted in the feature film American Gangster (2007), which fictionalized aspects of his life. This claim was denied by his Southeast Asian associate Leslie "Ike" Atkinson.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom</span> 2007 carjacking, rape, and murder of a couple in Knoxville, Tennessee

Channon Gail Christian, aged 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom Jr., aged 23, were from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. They were kidnapped on the evening of January 6, 2007, when Christian's vehicle was carjacked. The couple were taken to a rental house. Both of them were raped, tortured, and murdered. Four males and one female were arrested, charged, and convicted in the case. In 2007, a grand jury indicted Letalvis Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Devall Davidson, George Geovonni Thomas, and Vanessa Lynn Coleman on counts of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder. Also in 2007, Eric DeWayne Boyd was indicted by a federal grand jury of being an accessory to a carjacking, resulting in serious bodily injury to another person and misprision of a felony. In 2018, Boyd was indicted on state-level charges of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Young</span> American convicted bank robber and murderer

Henri Theodore Young was an American convicted bank robber and murderer who, while serving one of a series of prison terms, attempted to escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary with four other inmates in 1939. During the escape attempt two inmates, Dale Stamphill and Arthur "Doc" Barker, were shot, the latter fatally. All survivors were quickly recaptured. Two of the men, Young and Rufus McCain, were sentenced to solitary confinement and served the terms at Alcatraz for a period of three years. Eleven days after re-entering the Alcatraz general prison population in 1942, Young murdered McCain.

Richard M. Roberts is an American attorney. Roberts was a former law enforcement officer who worked as a detective in the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and Essex County Bureau of Narcotics. After completing law school at Seton Hall University and passing the bar examination, Roberts served as an Assistant Prosecutor in the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

<i>You Cant Get Away with Murder</i> 1939 film by Lewis Seiler

You Can't Get Away with Murder is a 1939 crime drama directed by Lewis Seiler, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gale Page, and featuring "Dead End Kid" leader Billy Halop. The film is from Bogart's period of being cast in B pictures by Warner Bros., before his breakthrough as a leading man in High Sierra two years later. The film is based on the play "Chalked Out" by Lewis E. Lawes.

<i>Dont Turn Em Loose</i> 1936 film directed by Ben Stoloff

Don't Turn 'Em Loose is a 1936 American crime drama film directed by Ben Stoloff and produced by RKO Radio Pictures, who released the film on September 18, 1936. Written by Harry Segall and Ferdinand Reyher, the production's screenplay is at least partially based on "Homecoming" by Thomas Walsh, a short story published in Collier's magazine in March 1936. The film costars Lewis Stone, James Gleason, Bruce Cabot, Louise Latimer and Betty Grable.

Code of the Streets is a 1939 Universal Studios film starring The Little Tough Guys.

<i>Empty Holsters</i> 1937 film by B. Reeves Eason

Empty Holsters is a 1937 American Western film directed by B. Reeves Eason and written by John T. Neville. The film stars Dick Foran, Patricia Walthall, Emmett Vogan, Glenn Strange, Anderson Lawler and Wilfred Lucas. The film was released by Warner Bros. on July 10, 1937.

<i>Paroled – To Die</i> 1938 film by Sam Newfield

Paroled – To Die is a 1938 American Western film directed by Sam Newfield and written by George H. Plympton. The film stars Bob Steele, Kathleen Eliot, Karl Hackett, Horace Murphy, Steve Clark and Budd Buster. The film was released on January 11, 1938, by Republic Pictures.

Gilles Mathieu, better known as "Trooper", is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster who served as the secretary to the elite Nomad chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Quebec from 1995 to his arrest in 2001.

References

  1. "JONATHAN LISTENS TO PLAYS True Story Of War At Sea Grips", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 37 (14 (April 4, 1942)), Sydney: Wireless Press, nla.obj-725956489, retrieved 17 March 2024 via Trove