Johnny Apollo (1940)

After his stockbroker father “Pop” Cain is sent to prison for embezzlement of funds, Bob Cain, Jr., after having a falling out with his father, quits college to look for a job, but is unable to find one due to his father’s notoriety. When he uses an alias, he finds works, but is then fired because of doing so.

Later, gangster Mickey Dwyer, sentenced on the same day as Pop, is granted parole. Bob, disgusted with his father’s lawyer, goes to see Dwyer’s attorney, an old former judge named Emmett T. Brennan, but he is not there, yet. Bob, calling himself Johnny, meets the gangster’s girlfriend, Lucky Dubarry, outside Brennan’s office and they talk. She is immediately attracted to him. Brennan arrives. Lucky pretends she knows Bob, and he, not wanting to disclose his identify at all, when asked by Brennan tells them both his full name is Johnny Apollo, taking the surname from the neon sign marquee on the dance-club he sees across the street through an open window. Lucky leaves, and Bob inquires of Brennan how to get Pop paroled. With money, he is told.