Nina Mae McKinney is a singer at Laurence Criner's night club. She's also a police woman working undercover to get evidence on Criner, who runs a protection racket and occasionally kills people who tells him know. Things heat up when Monte Hawley, a button man from out of town shows up to handle the growing work load. He tells Criner his operation is sloppy and he won't risk working for him unless things are better run.
It's a race film directed and produced by Leo Popkin -- best remembered as the producer of D.O.A.. It's a pretty good one, with a well-written story, good production values, nice cinematography by B veteran cameraman Robert Cline. Miss McKinney sings three songs, there's a good eccentric tap dancer and Mantan Moreland. Over all, it's on the level of one of the better minors -- Grand National, say.
On the down side, while the physical acting is pretty good, some of the line readings are a bit off. I suspect that was due to most of the cast being live performers, unused to to the camera; Popkin likely had neither the budget or experience to direct the performances better. Movies like this were never going to play the big White houses, only the ones that catered to a Black clientele.
Still, the novelty numbers are excellent and it's nice to see the Black actors playing all sorts of roles.
