Queen of the Mob
Cast & Crew
James Hogan
Ralph Bellamy
Jack Carson
Blanche Yurka
Richard Denning
James Seay
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Mobster Ma Webster rules her clan with an iron hand, taking charge of all their robberies despite the protests of George Frost, the only member of her gang who is not her son. On Christmas Eve, Ma, George and her sons Eddie, Charlie and Tom, rob the Centre City bank, but are warned to get out of town by her other son Bert, who disdains their criminal activity and is studying to be a lawyer. Ma and the gang go on a crime spree across the states, receiving $300,000 in ransom for kidnapping, and additional cash from various robberies. Aware that the serial numbers on the ransom money have been recorded by federal agents, they arrange with fellow crook Pan to trade the money $100,000 in unmarked bills, but take the bills and kill him instead, They are unaware, however, that the police have found a list of the serial numbers for all Pan's bills in his coat pocket. Federal agents Scott Langham and Ross Waring are put on the case, and trace the Websters to a Southern town, where Ma is posing as a socialite. The Websters elude the police, but are forced to live meagerly while hiding out in cheap hotels. By the next Christmas, Ma returns to Centre City to visit Bert's baby boy. While she is out, her boys hold up a store, but Charlie is killed and Tom is arrested. Bert represents Tom at his extradition trial, and convinces him to plead guilty and return willingly to the city of the kidnapping. When George wants to go his own way, Ma and Eddie kill him, then hire Stitch Torey to get Tom away from the police. Their attempt fails, however, and most of Torey's gang perish. After a year, Ma and Eddie have developed a low profile while Eddie works at a cannery to support them, and Ma becomes neighborly. Unknown to Ma, Eddie arranges a hideout for some robbers he hopes to join up with and gives them a case of canned food, but the criminals' car crashes and the police get Eddie's fingerprints from the cans. On Christmas Eve, federal agents attempt to arrest Ma and Eddie, who respond with gunfire. In the hail of bullets, Eddie is killed and Ma is finally arrested.
Director
James Hogan
Cast
Ralph Bellamy
Jack Carson
Blanche Yurka
Richard Denning
James Seay
Paul Kelly
William Henry
Jean Cagney
J. Carrol Naish
Hedda Hopper
Pierre Watkin
Billy Gilbert
John Harmon
John Miljan
Russell Hicks
William Duncan
Betty Mclaughlin
Charles Lane
Charlotte Wynters
Paul Fix
Paul Stanton
Tommy Conley
Charles Moore
Raymond Hatton
Mary Treen
Frank M. Thomas
Ed Gargan
Howard Mitchell
John Laird
Neil Hamilton
Robert Ryan
Leona Roberts
Lloyd Corrigan
Laura Treadwell
Roy Gordon
James Flavin
Sonny Bupp
Herbert Naish
Tommy Bupp
Rex Moore
Harry C. Bradley
Mary Gordon
Hilda Plowright
Walter Fenner
Edward Cooper
May Beatty
Selmer Jackson
William Pawley
Stanley Price
John "skins" Miller
Edward J. Marr
James Dundee
Max Hoffman Jr.
Brady Kline
James Farley
Allen Fox
Edgar Dearing
Edwin Stanley
Nora Cecil
Tom Dugan
Franklin Parker
Donald Douglas
Bruce Mitchell
Brooks Benedict
Crew
Hans Dreier
Mel Epstein
Ernst Fegte
A. E. Freudeman
Gene Garvin
Sigmund Krumgold
William Lebaron
Harry Lindgren
William R. Lipman
Edward T. Lowe
Horace Mccoy
Arthur Schmidt
Theodor Sparkuhl
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was The Woman from Hell. J. Edgar Hoover's book also served as the basis for Parole Fixer and Undercover Doctor (see below).
