Car 99

... is a strange plot device used in the B action picture from Paramount.

This is the first year Fred MacMurray was playing lead roles, and he starred in a number of vehicles at Paramount in 1935, including this one about the Michigan state police. MacMurray is a new recruit, Ross Martin, on the police force whose girlfriend, Mary (Ann Sheridan), is the local telephone operator. He's learning the ropes, based out of a rural area, when he encounters and brings in the leader of a high tech bank robbery gang. He rather undoes that deed by letting the leader escape. As a result he's put on suspension and really doesn't want to fight being thrown off the force until he gets a second chance to bring in this gang. It is part documentary, part comedy, part crime film.

The story is pretty routine to the point that watching it wouldn't hurt you if you were recovering from a nervous breakdown. There are two things that recommend it. First is the fact that there are some future big stars in it. Of course there is MacMurray, but there is also a very young Ann Sheridan and also Dean Jagger as MacMurray's partner on patrol. Then there is the big coincidence of William Frawley who will be MacMurray's Uncle Bub in the TV show My Three Sons as the trainer of the fresh group of recruits that include MacMurray. He is supposed to be the irascible older presence, but unexpected is his character continually telling the new recruits to stay away from women. He seems to be MGTOW 75 years before its time.

The second thing to recommend it is that high tech gang of bank robbers. They're not just the armed muscle like they might be over at Warner Brothers. These guys have a sophisticated plan and high tech equipment to go with it. An odd part of that sophisticated plan is that they blow up a church to lure the state police away from the bank that they plan to rob! I don't think I've ever seen that happen in a crime film before.

All of the things I've mentioned - the rather tame rustic atmosphere, the unexpected casting, and the high tech robbers make it worth watching.