AllMovie

The Widow from Chicago is Polly Henderson (Alice White) -- only she isn't really a widow and in fact has never been married. It's like this: Polly's police-detective brother Jimmy (Harold Goodwin), hoping to get the goods on the criminal gang run by vice lord Dominic (Edward G. Robinson), impersonates Chicago gangster Swifty Dorgan (Neil Hamilton), who is missing and presumed dead. While posing as Swifty, Jimmy is gunned down by a rival gang, right before Polly's eyes. Hoping to exact revenge, Polly pretends to be Swifty's widow and in this guise lands a job at Dominic's nightclub. And then -- get ready for the BIG SURPRISE! -- the real Swifty Dorgan shows up. Only the energetic performance by Edward G. Robinson makes this Byzantine-plotted crime yarn worth sitting through.