When a Broadway playboy is found dead, it's up to detective Jim Stevens to pick the murderer out of several likely candidates.When a Broadway playboy is found dead, it's up to detective Jim Stevens to pick the murderer out of several likely candidates.When a Broadway playboy is found dead, it's up to detective Jim Stevens to pick the murderer out of several likely candidates.
Eddie Borden
- Jailbird
- (uncredited)
James P. Burtis
- Reporter
- (uncredited)
Spencer Charters
- Teletype Man
- (uncredited)
Ray Cooke
- Photographer
- (uncredited)
Frank Darien
- Lawyer Manley
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAt about 6½ minutes, the police department uses IBM punch cards and a sorting machine to search a database. This may be the first display of that technology in film.
- GoofsAt 00:29:00 when Jack Winton says "And who are you?" the boom mic shadow passes over Eugene Pallette's (Sgt. Boggs) hat.
- Quotes
Jack Winton: I'm her brother and I demand the right to see her. You can tell Inspector Donnelly - Lt. Stevens that I'll have their scalps unless they allow me to see Miss Winton at once!
Sgt. Boggs: Oh yeah? What Indian reservation do you come from?
- SoundtracksShuffle Off to Buffalo
(1933) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren
Whistled by the policeman as he walks up the stairs
Featured review
Forensic science and police procedure as it existed in 1933
There are two cases being investigated here. One is a safe cracking case, and the other the murder of a wealthy playboy that was initially thought to be suicide. These two cases coincide.
In the first case the suspects are narrowed down by entering criteria into what passed for a primitive computer - without semiconductors. The murder case is more complex. The police start with the playboy's fiancee, Lou Winton (Margaret Lindsay), and there just get to be more and more suspects from there. The complicating factor is that Lou was homicide detective Stevens' (George Brent's) girlfriend before she was the playboy's fiancee.
Fingerprint technology, ballistics, autopsies, and blood testing are all mentioned. And like any WB film of the era there is an interesting cast of supporting characters running around - Hugh Herbert as an overenthusiastic bail bondsman, Ken Murray as an obnoxious crime reporter, Edward Ellis as a medical examiner who loves his work, and Dorothy Burgess as a crazy woman - she did that kind of role so well.
Eugene Pallette is in one of his less cuddly roles as Sgt. Boggs who seems to want arrest everybody for the murder. And you get to see something I don't think I've seen before in a 30s film - the police switchboard employs entirely male operators. At a little more than an hour it doesn't wear out its welcome, and I recommend it.
In the first case the suspects are narrowed down by entering criteria into what passed for a primitive computer - without semiconductors. The murder case is more complex. The police start with the playboy's fiancee, Lou Winton (Margaret Lindsay), and there just get to be more and more suspects from there. The complicating factor is that Lou was homicide detective Stevens' (George Brent's) girlfriend before she was the playboy's fiancee.
Fingerprint technology, ballistics, autopsies, and blood testing are all mentioned. And like any WB film of the era there is an interesting cast of supporting characters running around - Hugh Herbert as an overenthusiastic bail bondsman, Ken Murray as an obnoxious crime reporter, Edward Ellis as a medical examiner who loves his work, and Dorothy Burgess as a crazy woman - she did that kind of role so well.
Eugene Pallette is in one of his less cuddly roles as Sgt. Boggs who seems to want arrest everybody for the murder. And you get to see something I don't think I've seen before in a 30s film - the police switchboard employs entirely male operators. At a little more than an hour it doesn't wear out its welcome, and I recommend it.
helpful•40
- AlsExGal
- Apr 8, 2023
Details
- Runtime1 hour 4 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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