Invisible Stripes is terrific jumble of gangster and prison picture iconography, social commentary and hokey melodrama. George Raft, the stiff but iconic movie gangster, is top-billed and definitely the picture's central focus, but nearly equal weight is given to a very young William Holden as Raft's kid brother and Humphrey Bogart as Raft's unrepentant prison-mate. Fans of character players will delight in all the familiar faces turning up here, often in uncredited bit parts, including John Hamilton, Frankie Thomas, Bruce Bennett, Frank Faylen, Leo Gorcey, William Hopper, and Victor Kilian. Bogie and Lee Patrick, later Sam Spade's devoted secretary in The Maltese Falcon share a fun scene together.

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