... That's because the policemen are shown sitting around what appear to be card tables at the precinct and only spring into action when a crime occurs. Did the city planners perhaps get the fire department confused with the police department? Are there firemen wandering around in cars looking for fires? But I digress.
There is really nothing wrong with the structure of this film. A man - one of the criminal element - is fatally shot and as the police get there they urge him to say who did it before he dies. His last word is "Nolan", who is a mobster and the owner of a well known nightclub. Nolan claims he has been at the club all night, but a plain clothes policeman, Mack McCue, has been at the club all night and says he saw Nolan leave and come back. Well, I guess in this film the detectives have it better than the uniformed officers because rather than sitting around the precinct they get to sit around bars.
Well, all of a sudden a very pretty girl takes a shine to McCue. Doesn't he think it odd that he, an average Joe AND the star witness in the case against Nolan, is suddenly being hit on by such a classy gal who lives in a penthouse apartment with no visible means of support? Nope. He eats up the attention when the girl is just trying to get Mack in one place long enough that Nolan's mob can kill him! Meanwhile, McCue's partner, Bob Larkin, is trying to compete for the girl too. Too bad, she doesn't want to kill him, thus he never has a chance.
Well a fight breaks out between the detectives over the girl, allowing a perp to escape, and the pair are busted down to the riot squad, the existence of which never comes up again in the entire film.
In the meantime there is a murder trial, the kidnapping of the judge's daughter, the attempt to try to get information out of gun moll Lil before it is too late. Then there is Lil's feisty maid who looks out for herself and seems to know who butters her bread. I thought she was a great touch.
Like I said earlier, the problem here is just a lack of talent in everything but the writing department. Get some better direction and some better known actors - the best known one is Madge Bellamy as Lil who ironically is best known as playing a zombie the year before - and you might have something that rises to a 7/10. Maybe I'm an easy grader because I'm a sucker for these low budget crime dramas. What they lack in enthusiasm and art design they make up for in goofy plot twists and goofier acting. I'd say give it a try. It is not boring if you are accustomed to films from the 1930's.
There is really nothing wrong with the structure of this film. A man - one of the criminal element - is fatally shot and as the police get there they urge him to say who did it before he dies. His last word is "Nolan", who is a mobster and the owner of a well known nightclub. Nolan claims he has been at the club all night, but a plain clothes policeman, Mack McCue, has been at the club all night and says he saw Nolan leave and come back. Well, I guess in this film the detectives have it better than the uniformed officers because rather than sitting around the precinct they get to sit around bars.
Well, all of a sudden a very pretty girl takes a shine to McCue. Doesn't he think it odd that he, an average Joe AND the star witness in the case against Nolan, is suddenly being hit on by such a classy gal who lives in a penthouse apartment with no visible means of support? Nope. He eats up the attention when the girl is just trying to get Mack in one place long enough that Nolan's mob can kill him! Meanwhile, McCue's partner, Bob Larkin, is trying to compete for the girl too. Too bad, she doesn't want to kill him, thus he never has a chance.
Well a fight breaks out between the detectives over the girl, allowing a perp to escape, and the pair are busted down to the riot squad, the existence of which never comes up again in the entire film.
In the meantime there is a murder trial, the kidnapping of the judge's daughter, the attempt to try to get information out of gun moll Lil before it is too late. Then there is Lil's feisty maid who looks out for herself and seems to know who butters her bread. I thought she was a great touch.
Like I said earlier, the problem here is just a lack of talent in everything but the writing department. Get some better direction and some better known actors - the best known one is Madge Bellamy as Lil who ironically is best known as playing a zombie the year before - and you might have something that rises to a 7/10. Maybe I'm an easy grader because I'm a sucker for these low budget crime dramas. What they lack in enthusiasm and art design they make up for in goofy plot twists and goofier acting. I'd say give it a try. It is not boring if you are accustomed to films from the 1930's.