Broadway Johnnie Kenneth Thomson is discovered dead in his apartment. Detective George Brent and Sergeant Eugene Pallette draw the case, which becomes more and more confusing as it proceeds.
Warner Brothers made several of these 'cops doing their jobs' movies in the Pre-Code era, and delighted in showing the unattractive side of police work. Here, it's Edward Ellis, best remembered for playing the murder victim in THE THIN MAN, who draws the honors as a creepy police scientist who seems to have all humanity drained out of him in his pleasure at his investigative tools. But there's also Hugh Herbert as a bail bondsman, Dorothy Burgess as an addict, and James Burtis and Ray Cooke as a crime reporter and his photographer, trying to get a cheesecake photo of suspect Margaret Lindsay who add to the sleaziness.
Although there are plenty of red herrings ragged across the scene of the crime, the actual murder is solved with a clue that is not in the possession of the audience when it is done. Still, William Dieterle does well with the movie, with the usual large cast of Warners character actors including Henry O'Neill, Hobart Cavanaugh, Ken Murray, and Matt McHugh showing up for small bits.
Warner Brothers made several of these 'cops doing their jobs' movies in the Pre-Code era, and delighted in showing the unattractive side of police work. Here, it's Edward Ellis, best remembered for playing the murder victim in THE THIN MAN, who draws the honors as a creepy police scientist who seems to have all humanity drained out of him in his pleasure at his investigative tools. But there's also Hugh Herbert as a bail bondsman, Dorothy Burgess as an addict, and James Burtis and Ray Cooke as a crime reporter and his photographer, trying to get a cheesecake photo of suspect Margaret Lindsay who add to the sleaziness.
Although there are plenty of red herrings ragged across the scene of the crime, the actual murder is solved with a clue that is not in the possession of the audience when it is done. Still, William Dieterle does well with the movie, with the usual large cast of Warners character actors including Henry O'Neill, Hobart Cavanaugh, Ken Murray, and Matt McHugh showing up for small bits.