Although it has its quirks, this little film acquits itself well and covers some original ground for a B crime drama. The film opens with a guy on the street asking people if they want their fortunes told. The fortune teller across the street says that he is in her territory and calls her "protection racket" to get rid of the interloper. They actually show up! They actually eject the interloper! It turns out that every fortune teller in town is in league with this protection racket and is ponying up 10% of their take to them. Now this is normally not how it goes. Usually some big bulky piece of muscle says - "Nice business you have here, be a shame if anything happened to it." The business is just paying to prevent the mob from smashing their business. But there is a method in the mob's madness.They are using the fortune tellers to get their clients' signatures on small checks for payment of service and then transferring it to power of attorney papers via forgery to clean out the client's bank account. Or they are steering them towards worthless stock and a particular broker of that stock who is in league with the mob.Enter newspaper reporter Joe Ryan (Allan Lane) who strikes a deal with the D.A. to go into the fortune teller business with a fresh face who will collect evidence to get the thieves. Joe sure has some friends in high places because he is also friends with Phoebe Sawyer (Clara Blandick), a wealthy widow who lost her grown son in a shipwreck and is talked into going to a fortune teller - one of the most crooked and clever of them all it turns out - by her well meaning maid to find out if her son is really dead. The problem is, Joe doesn't know any of this - can he get the thieves before they clean out his wealthy friend? Watch and find out.There are some things that don't make a lot of sense in this film. First there is the crowded jail cell full of women in an all girl show who are looking at 90 days for - it is never said. They are certainly decently if tackily clothed. Was there a law against tacky sequined gowns in this town? It is among these girls that Joe finds his fortune tellers - an actress and a ventriloquist, Kitty (Inez Courtney). Now that ventriloquist turns out to be pretty important so pay attention to her. Then there is a murder that is never explained, but somehow the audience is supposed to get what happens due to the furtive glances of the assassin, who we don't even know is an assassin at the time. In the D.A.'s office it is explained that this guy has been murdered and I wondered - Who was that again? Then a dramatic touch that never pays off. One of the D.A's assistants says "He (murdered guy) was murdered because..." and then a knock at the door stops him and the motive is never explained! I can only figure that this was rushed out the door and that there was some hasty editing done. But the film works well in spite of this. Allan Lane carries off the main role of the clever reporter with good natured energy. I just wonder how the justice system in the town managed to handle anything less straight forward than jaywalking without him. All of the creativity in foiling the thieves comes from him. He's helped along with a great supporting cast - the best known being Clara Blandick, the rest being largely anonymous - all handling their parts well.I'd recommend it. Don't let its B film status fool you.

Crime Ring (1938) ** (out of 4) Bland crime-drama from RKO has a few interesting spots but not enough to make it a winner. Reporter Joe Ryan (Allan Lane) decides to bring down a ring of fake fortune tellers so he hires a few actresses to pose as them in order to crack the group of thieves running it all. CRIME RING isn't a bad movie but it's certainly far from a good one and there's no question that the studio wasn't putting too much effort into this picture, which more than likely was a second or third bill. At just 70-minutes the movie is paced good enough to where it never gets boring and there's no doubt that there are a few interesting ideas brought up in the screenplay. I thought the entire racket of fake fortune tellers could have made for a more interesting story but it seems the writers weren't trying to do anything special and instead they were just going by-the-numbers. The majority of these crime picture clichés are on full display and the twists and turns in the story are never going to catch you off guard. Lane isn't too bad as the reporter and he's at least fun enough to help keep the film moving. I also enjoyed Frances Mercer as the main actress who helps the D.A. and Clara Blandick is good as a grieving wife and mother trying to connect with her dead loved ones. CRIME RING is mainly going to appeal to fans of "B" movies as all others should just stay clear.

Handsome Allan Lane, who was actually a western star, leads the cast of "Crime Ring," a 1938 B movie.The film concerns fake fortunetellers who win the confidence of clients and then get them to part with their money by buying mining stocks which are worthless. The crime ring also has the fortunetellers pay protection and get 10% of the take.Lane is a reporter determined to bust up the racket. He enlists the help of an old millionairess (Clara Blandick, better known to you as Auntie Em) and a young woman, the beautiful Frances Mercer, who poses as a psychic as the session is recorded.Decent film, good story, fast moving, with real pros holding it up.What's interesting is the people who are uncredited here. One is Paul Fix, who was in every television western as an old man - he's younger here, but his face and voice are unmistakable. Actually most of the cast is listed as uncredited, and you'll see lots of early TV faces.A word about Clara Blandick, who was primarily a stage actress but managed to make 115 films, including playing Auntie Em in the Wizard of Oz. Eighty-one years old, in pain from arthritis, and nearly blind, she went to church one day, came home, and committed suicide. Her note said she was embarking on her greatest adventure. Hope so.

This is a predictable, yet very enjoyable, crime drama about a "protection" racket for fortune-tellers. It's a fast moving little programmer with a wonderful cast of veteran supporting actors.Allan Lane, playing a newspaper reporter, is the leading man. The leading lady was a nobody with a pretty face. In fact, you might as well say that the 'leading-lady' was Clara Blandick. She was cast as a crusty old multi-millionaire who, as the reporter's friend, ultimately helps him break up the 'crime-ring' of the film's title.The story in a nut-shell: A newspaper reporter goes after a "crime ring" that 'protects' the city's bogus fortune tellers in return for 10% of their take.But that's not the crime-ring's main source of income. They use the fortune tellers to 'steer' gullible victims to the crime-ring's spurious mining-stock salesmen, as well as other rip-offs.This "Crime-Ring" indulges in fraud, extortion, abduction, murder--- well, you get the idea....The background and supporting roles are played with great skill by a cast which is largely (and amazingly) uncredited!B-Movie devotees will spot some of the genre's 'greats' in fairly meaty supporting roles, yet their names failed to appear anywhere in the credits. For example- the great 'comedy-relief' supporting actor, Tom Kennedy, appears throughout this film (AS the film's comedy-relief, natch), but is no where in the credits!Also uncredited were B-movie & short-film vets Jack Rice & Byron Foulger.This is a short, zippy, well-acted little film with a great cast. It follows a standard 'formula', so there are no surprises, but it's great fun to watch and I highly recommend it.