Nan Cooley (Sylvia Sidney) falls for carnival worker The Kid (Gary Cooper). He shows off his gallery shooting skills and gets fired. She offers him a job with her racketeer father Pop Cooley but he refuses. Pop kills a rival and leaves Nan holding the gun. While Nan is sent to prison, The Kid joins Pop's crew.
I'm going with this expecting The Kid to do a deal with the DA to infiltrate and convict Pop's crew and get Nan released. That's the much better story progression. I like Nan's journey but I don't like The Kid's journey. Once Nan gets released, the relationship is lost since he has no romantic reason to stay in the gang. I stop liking The Kid until later in the movie. The relationship does recover and it is a pretty good gangster flick overall. The middle has a few issues.
I'm going with this expecting The Kid to do a deal with the DA to infiltrate and convict Pop's crew and get Nan released. That's the much better story progression. I like Nan's journey but I don't like The Kid's journey. Once Nan gets released, the relationship is lost since he has no romantic reason to stay in the gang. I stop liking The Kid until later in the movie. The relationship does recover and it is a pretty good gangster flick overall. The middle has a few issues.