Horace McCoy

A fascinating period piece that highlights the Depression-era fad of competing for cash prizes in grueling dance marathons and portrays the intertwining lives of a disparate group of contestants.

Rooney is the me-first kid who knocks the banked-oval world of roller skating on its kiester and later rediscovers his humanity when life decks him with a hard-right called polio.

Cabaret singer Kim Ling, the daughter of a Chinese general who has been accused of absconding with government funds, arrives in the Straits Settlements. There she meets Gregory Prin, a half-caste gunrunner and head of a jungle empire where he treats the Malaysians ruthlessly. She agrees to accompany him in search of her father, as she has several reason to believe Prin is responsible for the general's disappearance.

James Barlow, an agent from Chicago, is hired to bring the notorious Reno brothers to justice, but the Reno gang includes a beautiful woman who catches Barlow's eye.

When crusading district attorney John Conroy is tasked to crack down on a powerful crime syndicate, he recruits his no-nonsense newspaperman pal Jerry McKibbon, his sweetheart Mandy, and his grizzled detective father. But unbeknownst to the younger Conroy, the elder Conroy is mixed up in the same racket he's been appointed to take down.