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
Oddly, this one looks as if you're watching an actual case being investigated by COMPETENT police!
In the 1930s, detective and crime stories were a dime a dozen. Very few of them were about realism but about entertaining the audiences. Because of this, there were a lot of clichés you could expect in a film about murder....such as the cops being idiots, the bad guy confessing to everything at the end of the film even though the good guys could not prove they did it and police procedures were practically non-existent...they just kept arresting the wrong people until they got the right one!! The films don't age well because of all this and there is a serious sameness to them. Fortunately, among these many cliché-ridden stories is one like "From Headquarters"!
The film begins with a murder. Non-stupid detectives begin investigating and you follow the case from start to finish. You see them taking fingerprints, searching files and early computer systems and questioning various witnesses. While the guy played by Eugene Palette is a bit like the dopey detectives (in fact, this same actor played dopey detectives in several films), he's not over the top and is competent. His boss (George Brent) is quite competent and clever...like you'd hope a detective would be.
The bottom line is that this film is extremely well written, has much better than usual acting and has aged very well. The actors seem more realistic and less like archetypes in this one. Plus, it is fascinating seeing how thing have and haven't changed over the last 80 or so years. Well worth seeing.
The film begins with a murder. Non-stupid detectives begin investigating and you follow the case from start to finish. You see them taking fingerprints, searching files and early computer systems and questioning various witnesses. While the guy played by Eugene Palette is a bit like the dopey detectives (in fact, this same actor played dopey detectives in several films), he's not over the top and is competent. His boss (George Brent) is quite competent and clever...like you'd hope a detective would be.
The bottom line is that this film is extremely well written, has much better than usual acting and has aged very well. The actors seem more realistic and less like archetypes in this one. Plus, it is fascinating seeing how thing have and haven't changed over the last 80 or so years. Well worth seeing.
helpful•70
- planktonrules
- Mar 21, 2016
Details
- Runtime1 hour 4 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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