The most interesting part of this film is the complicated relationship between the father and the son and how it develops, the father being a widower of an only son without a mother, spoiled as the father is a millionaire and a business man without scruples, which leads him into trouble as he gets dishonoured and jailed for embezzlement, while the son, heretoforth completely honest, is ruined with his father, sees the injustice of his father's treatment and finds his only means to get him exonerated by turning to elements evading the law. Enter Dorothy Lamour who gets him involved, as she is already involved with those alternative elements. It's a great noir, the story is fascinating, the characters never cease to develop, the action is constantly moving forward, and no one can guess what will become of all this confusion of right and wrong, justice and injustice, seeing what is wrong and turning a blind eye to it as it seems right to do wrong, and so on.Edward Arnold is the great character who somewhat overshadows Tyrone Power, but the character that most will stick in your mind is the old pettifogger, Charley Grapewin as Judge Brennan, who quotes Shakespeare and cuts the only truly tragic character. The final scene somewhat spoils the drama, it would have been better without it, but up to that point it's one of the major and most intriguing noirs - and one of the first.

While not a classic for the ages, this pre-noir gangster adventure is an excellent example of the studio product churned out in a short time to top a two-film bill at your local theatre in the 1940's, and one of the things that makes it great fun for committed film fans is the use of familiar faces to back up Tyrone Power, playing a rich kid turned bad boy, and Dorothy Lamour, who surprises us by offering a good deal more in the acting department than in the Crosby-Hope Road films, where she functioned primarily as tropical window dressing.One fascinating performance is offered by the underused Charlie Grapewin, perhaps known to the average film goer as Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz, or as Grandpa in Grapes of Wrath (Grapewins's most sympathetic and memorable role is as burned-out Jeeter Lester in Jonh Ford's misunderstood Tobacco Road). In Johhny Apollo, Grapewin's take on the burned-out lawyer who takes milk with his Scotch and mumbles Shakespeare when to evade confrontation is both funny and endearing and he becomes a pivotal plot element as the plot thickens.And thicken it does, with lusty Edward Arnold tossed into jail for embezzlement, and his disowned son, Power, taking up with gangster Lloyd Nolan (always reliable, but here essayed with a nasty undercurrent); much of what Nolan's brutal ganglord does adds a noir element to the film,and a brief scene in a steam bath is right out of Sam Fuller.Add thug Marc Lawrence from Broadway, Jonathan Hale, reliably a doctor, Fuzzy Knight as a nervous prisoner, and from the Son of Frankenstein, Lionel Atwill, cold and calculating as the lawyer without ethics--until money is dangled his way. The pace never flags, and, except for a short and absurd tagged-on ending that Zanuck probably demanded on behalf of Power fans, the film builds to a dynamic shoot-out in a prison. Not a great classic, but a perfect example of 20th Century Fox machine making a film worth watching.

Wall Street millionaire Edward Arnold (as Robert Cain Sr.) is indicted for embezzlement and goes directly to jail. Canoeing in his swim trunks, college student son Tyrone Power (as Robert "Bob" Cain Jr.) is shocked and disappointed. He disowns his dad and drops out of school. Now a convict's son, Mr. Power finds himself unable to find honest work. While waiting to see alcoholic lawyer Charley Grapewin (as Emmett T. Brennan), Power meets attractive Dorothy Lamour (as "Lucky" Dubarry) and paroled gangster Lloyd Nolan (as Mickey "The Mick" Dwyer). Power assumes the name "Johnny Apollo" and drifts into a life of crime...This story is too loosely plotted, but not in a way that makes it difficult to follow...Helping immensely is that the film is great looking, and directed exceptionally by Henry Hathaway. The black-and-white cinematography is especially noteworthy; photographer Arthur Miller might have received his annual "Academy Award" nomination for this one, if the studio wasn't backing him in "The Blue Bird" (1940). Then Fox' biggest star, Power shows he might have accomplished the same feat at MGM or Warner Bros. Singing and "Dancing for Nickels and Dimes", Ms. Lamour is luscious, especially in a leggy skirt and clinging top. Dependable supporting actors like Mr. Nolan and Mr. Grapewin get juicy parts, too.******* Johnny Apollo (3/15/40) Henry Hathaway ~ Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan, Edward Arnold

VHenry Hathaway was a very important director. And the four major performers had long, varyingly impressive careers as well: Tyrone Power was handsome and worked hard. Here is not very believable, though. He plays the son of a superb actor: Edward Arnold. Arnold is a financier who does something crooked and as the story opens gets sent to prison. Power rejects him and starts hanging out with a really bad guy, played by Lloyd Nolan -- was another fine actor. And Dorothy Lamour, always likable and pretty,as always, does well in a role darker than the Road pictures for which is most famous Possibly least believable is everyone's calling Power by the name he's taken on after eschewing his father: the eponymous Johnny Apollo. The police call him this. The gangsters do too. Doesn't it seem a rather unlikely surname to anyone? Doesn't anyone do background checks on his character? It's beautifully filmed and but it's fluffy rather than gritty.