John Wayne ("Reynolds") meets a lady - Ona Munson ("Julie Mirabeau") on a Mississippi river boat heading for New Orleans. When they are met on arrival by the feisty Helen Westley ("Blanche") and the girl's esteemed father Henry Stephenson ("Gen. Mirabeau") we discover all we will need to know: Lawyer Duke has been summoned at the behest of Westley to begin an investigation into the city lottery being run by Stephenson. The General epitomises the almost chivalric society that exists on the surface whilst ensuring that his fellow citizens buy plenty of lottery tickets (willingly or otherwise). When the old gent discovers his right hand man is overstepping the mark, he fires him - that riles "Blackie" (Ray Midddleton) and when, shortly afterwards, young "Julie" suddenly finds herself an orphan she decides to involve herself more in her now late father's "charitable" work and to blame "Reynolds" for his death... It runs a bit to melodrama, this - but there are stronger than usual themes of extortion, bribery and corruption on an pretty grand scale. The ending to the story is pretty predictable, lame even, but there are some cracking storm effects that demonstrate just how easily nature could eradicate even the most substantial structures put in place to protect folks. Stephenson (perhaps not his wobbly accent, so much) is his usual dapper self, there is a bit of fun chemistry between Wayne and Munson but Helen Westley steals this for me as the determined old woman set upon cleaning up her town.
