The film, featuring a law enforcement officer triumphing over gangsters was released by Warners in the same year as G Men. The film was made just after the Hays Office started to enforce the Production Code. They insisted on several minor changes and wanted a scene producer Sam Bischoff felt was crucial to the plot to be cut in its entirety. The censors compromised by allowing it to remain intact but without what they considered offensive dialogue. As a result, Ricardo Cortez' lips can be seen moving but nothing is heard on the soundtrack. The Oscar-winning song "Lullaby of Broadway" by Harry Warren and Al Dubin is heard in the background in a scene set in a casino. The tune was introduced by Wini Shaw that same year in the musical film Gold Diggers of 1935, also a Warner Bros. release. New York newspaperman Martin Mooney's story also served as the basis of the 1940 Warner Bros. release Gambling on the High Seas. Mooney provide the story for the following year's Bullets or Ballots and Exclusive Story as well as authoring the book Crime Incorporated (1935). Reception The New York Times called the film a "crisp, fast moving and thoroughly entertaining melodrama" and "a wild and woolly gangland saga", adding, "It all has been done before, but somehow it never seems to lose its visual excitement." Radio adaptation Special Agent was presented on Warner Brothers Academy Theater April 24, 1938. Carole Landis and John Ridgely starred in the 30-minute adaptation. References External links 1935 films 1935 crime drama films American black-and-white films American crime drama films 1930s English-language films Films about journalists Films directed by William Keighley Films produced by Samuel Bischoff Warner Bros. films 1930s American films Films scored by Bernhard Kaun