A Gun in His Hand (1945) User Reviews

An early look at police procedures in a "Crime Does Not Pay" short subject...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 23 October 2008]

This is a better than average crime melodrama from the producers of the "Crime Does Not Pay" series of shorts made during the '40s.

Today's movie-goers and TV watchers will find it reasonably interesting but primitive in police methods and forensics, especially if they watch the latest CSI shows using modern methods of detection. Still, watching the police on the trail of a crooked officer who's killed a fellow policeman is compelling material for this short subject.

Naturally, the rogue cop has to pay for his criminal behavior. It's all quickly paced and competently performed by a cast of relatively unknown actors that includes ANTHONY CARUSO (who always reminds me so much of RALPH BYRD, another B-actor who played similar tough guy roles).

Some may find it lacks something in the way the detectives go about their work, but I found it held my interest.

Good Cop, Bad Cop-----7/10.

[highclark · 7/10 · 21 February 2005]

This is the story of a young man who knew what he wanted to be once he graduated from the police academy: a thief. Once Dennis Nordell becomes an officer of the law, his grand scheming falls perfectly into place. Officer Nordell walks his beat through the day and plans robberies of liquor warehouses at night. Because Officer Nordell knows the whereabouts of his fellow officers up to the minute, he can plan without fail many robberies over several weeks.

Once Nordell murders a fellow police officer during a robbery, clues start to fall into place and Nordell starts to head unknowingly into a trap. Police headquarters suspect Nordell, but leave it to Nordell to hang himself while taking charge of the investigation. Nordell complies by tampering with evidence. Nordell goes a step too far by trying to put the finger on a street thug who literally doesn't have the fingers required to leave any fingerprints.

This story plays out like a decaffeinated CSI TV show. You won't have to sit through an hour to see how the robberies get figured out, nor will you have to wade through minutes and minutes of beer and car commercials. Best of all, you won't have to watch guys with perpetual two-day beards in khaki pants solve anything.

It's very dated, but who isn't these days….7/10.

Clark Richards

Not great but worth seeing

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 24 November 2013]

This is a very unusual installment of the Crime Does Not Pay series in that the bad guy in this one is a cop! Officer Nordell (Tom Trout) just completed his training in the police academy and you then discover that he's always been a member of organized crime! He joined the police force in order to be an inside man and help the crooks!

When Nordell is discovered by one of his fellow policemen, Nordell kills him--shooting him down with his service revolver. However, the police learn that the slug was from a police gun and begin examining the guns of all officers. Not surprisingly, Nordell switched guns to avoid detection but you know, like all the Crime Does Not Pay films, that ultimately evil will be caught and punished.

This is a decent short film, though the resolution seemed a bit too easy. Still, it is enjoyable and worth your time.

By the way, this is the second film in which Anthony Caruso appears. Caruso played great noir villains and even parodied this on the "Star Trek" episode "A Piece of the Action".

Crime Does Not Pay

[Michael_Elliott · 1 January 2010]

Gun in His Hand, A (1945)

*** (out of 4)

Nice entry in MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series deals with a corrupt cop. Officer Dennis Nordell (Tom Trout) goes through the police training at the top of his class but his real goal after graduation is using this knowledge to pull off the perfect robberies. Nordell and his gang start knocking off alcohol warehouses but soon a patrolman is killed in action and his plan starts to unravel. This was the forty-six entry in the long-running series and it once again shows why this was one of the most entertaining series out there. Once again we're treated to a very good story with some good twists and nice acting. I'm not sure if fans of today's crime dramas would get too much from this series but fans of older movies certainly will. This episode had a pretty good story as seeing the cop use his knowledge to pull off the crimes was an interesting set up and the film does a nice job at closing things down. As usual, we get some nice action along the way and Trout makes for a good bad guy.

Cop College

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 6 February 2017]

Considering the background checks that are done now for rookies to enter the police academy like my nephew had done on him a couple of years ago I think the plot of A Gun In His Hand would be unrealistic today. At a minimum someone with computer hacking skills would have to be in on the scheme.

Tom Trout goes to the police academy to learn police methods, the better to pull off robberies. For a while he has a good thing going, but he has to murder one of his fellow officers who recognizes him at the scene of a warehouse robbery.

I won't say more but to nail him good and proper Inspector Richard Gaines really sets him up with one elaborate con.

A Gun In His Hand won an Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject and you'll recognize such character players as Anthony Caruso, Ray Teal, and Arthur Space in the cast. A worthy entry in the MGM Crime Does Not Pay series.

Anthony Caruso, always looking for a bad buck

[verbusen · 7/10 · 24 March 2019]

Turner Classic Movies played this and it sounded interesting so I recorded it. I had never heard of the Crime Doesn't Pay short subject series. Being from a premier studio MGM means decent production values and it has along with decent character actors. Anthony Caruso is in this so that was nice. You may remember him in White Heat and many other supporting roles always as a bad guy (and greedy). You would think after knocking down dozens of liquor warehouses in the same city they would have moved on, or the G-Men would have taken over at such an inept police force (or private insurer detectives), maybe it was in Chicago? I felt bad for the old Irish cop who looked like an older William Frawley (Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy, although I know its not him), probably one week away from retirement. I wondered why he would charge after the bad guys when he already had the evidence to nail them, oh well thats Hollywood. It was curious that they would show how easy it was to fake fingerprints, I wonder if it's really that easy? 7 of 10 if you are looking for an old MGM crime short to entertain you, I was entertained by it.

Dishonest Cop

[boblipton · 6/10 · 25 September 2019]

Tom Trout is a new graduate from the police academy. His future looks bright. He led the class in many of his subjects. He is also a crook. He had a clean record and figured that the best way to plan a crime is to learn how the police investigate one. Can he be on to something, or will he learn, as many a studio audience has, that CRIME DOES NOT PAY?

This short subject was nominated for an Oscar and it's easy to see why in retrospect. It very daringly concerns itself with police malfeasance. It's a common enough complaint these days, but in an era where the gang wars of Prohibition were not far away, the idea that the foot soldier in the fight against crime might be a problem was a shocker. Usually corruption, pay-offs from the hoods spread from the top in the popular mind.

The MGM back lot sure looks darker and more foreboding here than it does in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.

A great short film that I'm glad to see on DVD

[stalzz64 · 7/10 · 4 July 2009]

It was pretty cool to see this one and a total of nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes of other short films in this series as bonus tracks on the 'DVD 'Film Noir-Bringing Darkness To Light' by Warner Bros. This is a great short about how crime doesn't pay. The police forensics in the 40's were pretty damned amazing considering that there were NO COMPUTERS.

WB is GREAT about including short subjects that would probably never see the light of day on DVD or TV. The TCM channel, owned by WB does show these MGM shorts, thank goodness!

Several of these shorts have familiar character actor faces in them including Anthony Caruso in this one who was one of the most prolific character actors and contract players in Hollywood in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's. One of his most famous roles was in an episode of 'Star Trek' the original series in the episode 'A Piece Of The Action', where he played (surprise!) a gangster mob boss who meets Kirk and Spock and the Enterprise gang. Look up Anthony Caruso's impressive resume here on IMDb.

I collect celebrity autographs and I specialize in character actors and actresses, and I am fortunate to have Mr. Caruso's signature in my collection! No, I don't sell any of my autographs, either.

The ultimate inside man?

[ripplinbuckethead · 7/10 · 2 September 2019]

In this police procedural with a twist, a group of police graduates are told the story of Dennis Nordell, a fellow graduate who went through all the training simply to use his new knowledge to become a better criminal, learning what not to do, as he put it. He and his gang then proceed to successfully knock off many liquor warehouses. But how will they eventually be caught?

I've always liked these Crime Does Not Pay shorts, having seen most on TCM. (even the copy I saw on YouTube is from a TCM airing) This one is directed by Joseph Losey, which is why I went into it, but I would've enjoyed it regardless. These shorts are always simple but interesting, designed to show the public to not even bother; you will be caught. Even in the days before computers and other hi-tech equipment, the departments could still be highly sophisticated in their own way.

As usual with these shorts, there were a few familiar faces, the most notable being Richard Gaines as Inspector Dana and Anthony Caruso as Frankie, but apparently Hugh Beaumont and good ol' Ray Teal are hanging around out back too. ;)

Calling all cops! The honest ones, that is.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 9 December 2015]

Criminal elements exist in every profession, whether it be law passing, law enforcing or law breaking. This is the story of what happens when bad men get into law enforcement for sordid reasons, not too surprising even in a 70 year old short. This real short short doesn't really have the time to expose what's really going on, but it does expose how one bad apple can spoil the bushel. We've seen in society a hatred towards the law for just this reason, but as well meaning as it is, it ain't no "Serpico". Patriotism turned to cynicism following World War 2 and this gives a taste of things to come. There's nobody in the cast to develop any interest on that end other than the unbilled Hugh Beaumont so it doesn't really hold much historical value other than managing to get an Oscar Nomination and to take on an occupation that had either been previously presented as buffoons or brutally honest.

A Gun in His Hand is another "Crime Does Not Pay" short well worth seeking

[tavm · 9/10 · 4 June 2008]

This is another of M-G-M's "Crime Does Not Pay" shorts that appeared in the "Special Features" section of the DVD "Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light". In this one, rookie cop Dennis Nordell (Tom Trout), after graduating from police academy, goes back to his crooked friends in order to pull one heist after another of various warehouses. He seems to have thought it all out, but at the last minute, after he killed a veteran on the force and got transfered to homicide and then tries to finger a crook with a record, some small clues trip him up...Another compelling entry in the series that provides some added excitement of underscoring and narration by a mentor of some new recruits about Nordell with a lesson to them at the end. Well worth seeking out for anyone interested in these vintage stuff.

1945's Answer to CSI

[Eric_Leiston · 8/10 · 10 July 2006]

An entertaining one reeler that relies on themes of forensic science, police professionalism, and the cunning criminal mastermind.

**Plot spoiler** A very novel idea was the concept of matching a bullet by metallurgical analysis against a batch from the foundry. And exactly how were the fingerprints on the handgun faked? There was a film fade at that juncture.Naturally, all these plot elements are highly imaginative, and seem primitive compared to today's modern shows such as CSI. Still in 50 years, how quaint will today's crime investigation shows seem? Especially the leaps into forensic science fiction>

Of course, what is more interesting is the unbroken and unshaken belief mass media has in the basically high minded and incorruptible guardians of of the law and their use of modern science. This could well be the subject of someone's dissertation. For the time being, I will enjoy these shows and try to ignore the sad fact that almost all crimes are committed by very stupid young males, who, after they are convicted, will break their silence and blame substance abuse and their own stupid parents. If I am killed then the suspects, according to statistics, will be drunk or emotionally immature drivers, or my own enraged friends or relatives.