Willard Robertson

An arrogant mobster, sentenced to a long prison term in Sing Sing, becomes a changed man when given a chance by the fair and progressive warden. Egotistical criminal Tommy Gordan believes that he is both above the law, and entitled special privilege in any situation just because of who he is. This view is supported in that his unethical lawyer, Ed Crowley, has been able to get him off time and time again no matter what the charge. Tommy's criminal activity does not sit well with his straight-laced girlfriend, Kay Manners, who loves him regardless. Even when he is caught, charged, and convicted of robbery, and subsequently sentenced to five to thirty years to be served at Sing Sing, Tommy expects that Crowley will not only get him out immediately, but that he will arrange for him to get those special privileges for his short stint inside, including not needing to do anything he doesn't want to do, and being able to continue to wear his expensive clothes to look the part of being important. Tommy is in for a shock to his lifestyle when Crowley is not able to arrange for either with Warden Walter Long, whose primary goal with any inmate is true rehabilitation. Over the early course of his sentence, Tommy, stemming partly from his superstition and partly from seeing the fate of other "smart" inmates who tried to skirt the system, does begin to be rehabilitated in Warden Long's estimation. So when he learns that Kay has been critically injured in an accident, Warden Long, as he has done successfully with other inmates previously, allows Tommy unescorted day leave to visit Kay on the promise that he returns to prison after the visit. While Tommy has every intention to return as instructed, he may have other thoughts when he learns that Kay's predicament was in an altercation with Crowley, Kay and his own well-being which would take a back seat to revenge if given the opportunity.

After a scandal runs a gold-digger out of town, she meets a con artist and becomes embroiled in a string of petty deceits. Rightly suspected of illicit relations with the Masked Bandit, Flower Belle Lee is run out of Little Bend. On the train she meets con man Cuthbert J. Twillie and pretends to marry him for "respectability." Arrived in Greasewood City with his unkissed bride, Twillie is named sheriff by town boss Jeff Badger...with an ulterior motive. Meanwhile, both stars inimitably display their specialties, as Twillie tends bar and plays cards, and Flower Belle tames the town's rowdy schoolboys... —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Immigrant radical Bartolomeo Romagna is falsely condemned and executed for a payroll robbery. Years later, his son Mio sets out to find the truth of the crime and to bring to account the gangster Trock Estrella. Immigrant radical Bartolomeo Romagna is falsely condemned and executed for a payroll robbery. Years later, his son Mio sets out to find the truth of the crime and to bring to account the gangster Trock Estrella. —Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>