Having struck gold with the previous season's
Dillinger
, the King Brothers returned to Monogram as producers of
The Gangster
. Adapted by Daniel Fuchs from his own novel
Low Company
, the film stars Barry Sullivan as flint-faced racketeer Shubunka. Shown to be a product of the slums, Shubunka spends his adulthood in pursuit of power and riches, with no time for friendship or romance. Wounded in a gangland shootout, Shubunka ruminates on his past, present and (unlikely) future, wondering if it's all been worth it. Promoted as a "psychological" drama,
has plenty of gunplay and bloodshed to satiate action fans, and a surfeit of sex appeal in the form of gangster's moll Nancy (played by Monogram's resident skating star Belita). Prominent in the supporting cast is the ineluctable Sheldon Leonard as Shubunka's chief rival, delivering a subtler variation on his patented tough-guy screen persona.
was directed by Oscar-winning art director Gordon Wiles, later a mainstay of such TV series as
Land of the Lost
and
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
.