| The Public Pays | |
| Director: | Errol Taggart |
| Producer: | Jack Chertok |
| Starring: | Richard Alexander Barbara Bedford |
| Distributor: | MGM |
| Runtime: | 19 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
The Public Pays is a 1936 short crime film directed by Errol Taggart. In 1937, it won an Academy Award at the 9th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel).[1] [2] The film is a dramatization of actual court records that tell the story of a gang's racketeering activities in the milk industry and its eventual defeat through the heroism of one dealer.[3]
Three tough-looking men rent an office in Claybourne City and run the Creamery Betterment Association, a front for their extortion. They intend to force every dealer in the city to sign as members, with dues set at one cent on every quart of milk sold; the dealers will recoup the cost of the dues by raising the price of milk by three cents a quart.
The organization resorts to brutal tactics to force compliance from unwilling merchants. Only one dealer, John Paige, has the courage to refuse. He cooperates with the police but weakens when his family is threatened. Police persuade him to wait and replace all of his drivers with detectives, who arrest the gangsters when they attack the trucks. The police surround the gang, who are waiting in ambush to drill Paige's trucks with a tommy gun. This provides sufficient evidence and the gang is arrested and sent to prison for 50 years.