| Bullet Scars | |
| Director: | D. Ross Lederman |
| Producer: | no credit |
| Screenplay: | Robert E. Kent |
| Based On: | an idea by Charles Belden and Sy Bartlett |
| Starring: | Regis Toomey Adele Longmire Howard da Silva |
| Music: | Howard Jackson |
| Cinematography: | Ted McCord, A.S.C. |
| Editing: | James Gibbon |
| Studio: | Warner Bros.–First National |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. |
| Runtime: | 59 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Bullet Scars is a 1942 American film produced and distributed by Warner Bros.[1] [2] It was directed by D. Ross Lederman with top-billed stars Regis Toomey, Adele Longmire[3] and Howard da Silva.[4]
Gangster Frank Dillon is on the run with his gang after a bank robbery in which one of them, Joe Madison, was badly wounded. The gang stops at a doctor's office, but when the doctor tries to call the police about the gunshot wound, Dillon kills him.
Dillon hides in a lodge and sends for nurse Nora Madison, who comes because she is Joe's sister. Knowing that she does not have the skill to treat her brother, she insists on a doctor. Dillon finds Dr. Steven Bishop, who is preparing to leave for a research assignment. Dillon promises to build Bishop a complete research lab and pay him $500 a month if he will stay and heal Joe. Bishop accepts, not realizing who Dillon is.
Bishop and Nora operate on Joe, who remains paralyzed and unable to speak. The two gradually become closer, to Dillon's displeasure, as he feels that Nora belongs to him. Bishop gradually begins to understand who Dillon is and, when Joe dies, Nora explains that Dillon will now kill them both. They conceal Joe's death, and Bishop asks Dillon to send two members of the gang to the pharmacist for medicine. Bishop writes a prescription in what he tells Dillon is pharmaceutical Latin, but it is actually information about the gang's location.
The pharmacist calls the sheriff, who calls in state troopers, resulting in a climactic shootout in which the gang is wiped out. Bishop and Nora find their happy ending.[5]
| +Uncredited (in order of appearance) | ||
| William Hopper | bank teller who is shot after stepping on alarm button | |
| George Meeker | police radio announcer of bank robbery | |
| Fred Kelsey | police chief answering reporters' questions about pursuit of bank robbers | |
| Frank Mayo | Frank, police chief's deputy who ushers the reporters into the chief's office | |
| Glen Cavender | reporter who asks the chief, "Was one of them shot?" | |
| Stuart Holmes | reporter who asks the chief, "Have you got any witnesses to identify the mob chief?" | |
| Charles Drake | reporter who asks the chief, "What about the washout at Pinehurst [or Penhurst]? Are they blocking off the detours?" | |
| Vera Lewis | car driver's wife who says, "What's the meaning of this? Charles you drive right ahead. We've done nothing wrong." | |
| Leo White | Charles, the car driver who says, "but officer, I... I..." | |
| Jack Mower | roadblock officer who says, "That's all right, brother. I know just how you feel. My wife tells me how to drive too." | |
| Ray Montgomery | news photographer at police shootout with robbers who says, "This is terrific." |
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Thomas M. Pryor called Bullet Scars "a lot of 'bang bang' noise; nothing more" and wrote: "The Warners must have been kidding when they solemnly renounced the production of B pictures a while back, for 'Bullet Scars' ... has a familiar buzz about it."[6]