Respect the Law

How selfishness endangers society. Apropos during the Covid pandemic.

It's A Crime Does Not Pay Subject from MGM. The premise is that small crimes lead to greater crimes. In the short, Johnson scoffs at the $26k rat-proofing ordinance and uses a $2500 bribe to get around the order. Soon, rats over-run the docks which leads to an outbreak of plague.

While I'm fine with this episode, there is a danger to the message. Quite frankly, this speaks more to the imbalance of perception between white collar crimes and other crimes. A bribe to a city official is a much bigger danger to society than one would expect. One could take the message of this short and propose a broad indiscriminate sweep of all crimes like jaywalking or curfew violation. I would massage the message to making white collar crimes into a more important level instead of the broken window theory of crime.

Respect the Law (1941)

*** (out of 4)

Thirty-third entry in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series with this one taking a look at minor crimes and how they can be just as dangerous as major crimes. In the film, a ship dock owner (Richard Lane) buys off a Health Inspector so that he can avoid cleaning the rats off his dock. This doesn't seem too big at the time but soon the rats bring in a plague that starts killing hundreds of people. This isn't the best film in the series but it's another good entry that gets its point across even though it's pretty heavily handled at times. As with most films in the series, I'm really not sure how much good they did as I'm sure people forgot the message as they walked out of the theater but perhaps these did leave their mark on a few. Lane, from Columbia's Boston Blackie series, turns in a good performance and you can also look for a young Hugh Beaumont from Leave It to Beaver fame.

Richard Lane is confronted with a city ordinance to beef up his docks. Instead, he bribes inspector Frank Orth to avoid the expense. The result is rats, rats, and bubonic plague, because Crime Does Not Pay!

Moroni Olsen plays the doctor in charge of quelling the plague; often in this long-running MGM series, he played the head of the criminal gang. I'm sure he appreciated the change of pace. He had entered movies in 1934, and quickly established himself as a capable character actor, able to play Porthos or the Pope in more than a hundred movies over the following twenty years. He died in 1954 at age 65.

Once again, MGM's crime reporter brings us a story in their "Crime Does Not Pay" series. Names, as you may recall, are purposely made fictitious... Forthwith, we receive an introduction from Moroni Olsen (as Dr. Walter Terriss), health commissioner of a large coastal city. Next, we meet businessman Richard Lane (as George Johnson), who balks at purchasing mandatory rodent control for $26.000. When told, "It's a city ordinance," Mr. Lane replies, "It's an outrage!"

Lane successfully bribes rodent inspector Frank Orth (as Peter Brennan) to falsely report his properties are rat free. Then, one of Lane's dockworkers collapses and dies from the bubonic plague! As the death toll rises, police lieutenant William Forrest (as Edward Macroy) and Dr. Olsen must solve the mystery, and track down the rats responsible. "Leave it to Beaver" father Hugh Beaumont plays a reporter. Please, viewers, "Respect the Law" and follow city ordinances!

**** Respect the Law (1/4/41) Joe Newman ~ Richard Lane, Moroni Olsen, Frank Orth, William Forrest