Patriotic Mobsters

[alexxkay]

Kestrell and I recently watched "All Through The Night", a comedy-drama with gangsters versus Nazi spies, released mere weeks before Pearl Harbor. It's not the *first* movie I've seen that had the trope "We may be crooks, but we're *American* crooks!" … But I wonder whether or not it's the *earliest* appearance of that trope.

Anyone have other examples? I know I've seen this before, but it's apparently not common enough to get a TVtropes entry.

Comments

[pseudohistorian.livejournal.com]

The Rocketeer plays up this trope quite a bit, though I'm not sure if it's meant to be a(nother) homage in that movie or an independently-conceived running joke.