Five members of a teen-age gang, including leader Jimmy Smith, are sent to the state reformatory, presided over by the melodramatically callous Thompson. Soon, Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed deputy commissioner as a political favor, arrives – complete with hip flask and blonde. Gargan falls for activist nurse Dorothy and, inspired by her, takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. But Thompson, to conceal his years of graft, needs a quick way to discredit Gargan.
Stars
James Cagney
Madge Evans
Arthur Byron
Allen Jenkins
Dudley Digges
Frankie Darro
Sheila Terry
Robert Barrat
Archie Mayo