This reminds me of the better known bigger budget "It All Came True" where gangster Bogie hides out in a board house, hoping to appropriate it for his own purpose, when in the end the board house occupants appropriate Bogie for their purposes.
Gangster Chink Moran (Sheldon Leonard), a gangster of the more violent style, is being drafted and will now be out of the hair of a gangster of more modern subtle ways, Rickey Deane (Lloyd Nolan). To celebrate having Moran out of his hair for a year or so, Deane decides to go out into the country with his pal and fellow gangster Louie for some fresh air and fishing. They are pulled over in a speeding trap on the way there, where the town judge exacts fines based on how rich he thinks the defendants are. He does this because the town is dying since the factory closed, and speeding tickets are the tax base.
Deane, the enterprising gangster, decides to buy the town when he learns it is for sale. He intends to get his friends that are under threat of indictment to speed through the town, get caught, refuse to pay the fine levied by the judge, and then keep them in jail for a few weeks for a thousand dollars a week to avoid more serious state and federal charges. That is the racket.
But the judge's daughter gets wise and forces Deane to spend a large amount of the money he collects on the town - a new fire engine, fresh paint, a new sewer system, etc. Then the feds show up and, given the build up to war going on and the town's new look, want to reopen the factory and put the town back to work. Deane would have a chance to go legitimate, but just then the more heavy handed Chink Moran appears back in circulation and wanting a piece of the action, and he is not civic minded either. Watch and find out what happens.
This is actually a screwball comedy with gangsters rather than a gangster film with screwball comedy elements. Deane's merry band seems completely harmless, and their interaction with the locals are hilarious. There is a boarding house landlady who is a big fan of the gangsters - she reads true crime magazines - and knows who they all are by name. Deane strikes up a romance with the judge's daughter, in spite of her arm twisting ways when it comes to Deane spending money on the town. This is probably one of Lloyd Nolan's most versatile roles since he gets to play tough guy and good guy, and both serious and funny. Made by refined Paramount, it seems more like an independent production with lots of lesser known players. I'd recommend it.
