 Her follow-up to "A Tale of Two Cities" was the lead in a B movie shoot-'em-up, "Queen of the Mob" (1940), in which Yurka played a gangster matriarch closely based on the contemporary outlaw, Ma Barker.Her severe, vaguely imperious looks led to her casting in a rogue's gallery of austere or villainous parts.Through the 1940s and with decreasing frequency in the 1950s, she appeared in a succession of B parts that wasted her talents, occasionally landing supporting character parts in A list movies.