Smashing the Vice Trust is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by Melville Shyer and starring Willy Castello, Veola Vonn and Selmer Jackson. Marketed as an exploitation film, it was produced and distributed by the Poverty Row studio Willis Kent Productions.Schaefer p.1-2 Castello later reprised the role for another Kent film Confessions of a Vice Baron (1942).Pitts p.204
Plot Criminal 'Lucky' Lombardi notices that profits are down in his vice empire and has him henchman begin a campaign of recruiting of kidnapping pretty high school girls to work for him as prostitutes, even as he backs a campaign to crack down on vice targeted at his rivals.
Cast Willy Castello as James 'Lucky' Lombardi Veola Vonn as Lois Bacon Dean Benton as Harry Selmer Jackson as District Attorney Sam Flint as Martin Standish - Crooked Lawyer Paul Parry as Eddie Sheldon Jett as Henchman Frank LaRue as Mr. Bacon Augusta Anderson as Madam Maude Fealy as Mrs. Bacon Ed Cassidy as Police Officer Lester Dorr as Eddie's Henchman
References
Bibliography Pitts, Michael R. Poverty Row Studios, 1929-1940. McFarland & Company, 1997. Schaefer, Eric. "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959. Duke University Press, 1999.
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