Bureau of Missing Persons (1933) User Reviews (25)

The Two Normas

[nycritic · 5/10 · 5 May 2006]

One of the most interesting aspects of watching Davis' early films is the appearance of contract players switching roles from movie to movie. Where one actress would play a socialite in one, she'd be a secretary in the next, and where one actor would be a gangster in one film, he'd show up in a cameo or a detective later on. In THE BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS, we're treated to a compressed form of this appearance-reappearance syndrome. This time, it's from Davis herself: she first shows up as Norma Roberts and files a missing person's report on account of her husband. Butch Saunders comes to her case, but falls for her, although later he learns she's wanted in Chicago for the murder of her husband and is using the Bureau. Norma herself makes a disappearing act, later turning up with darker hair to her own funeral -- or at least, her namesake's funeral. This time around, it does look like she was framed for her husbands murder after all.

It's a fast movie as I've ever seen, with the same sort of rushed quality that was typical of the time and the studio. While Davis doesn't quite get to do more than come into the movie, speak her lines, change her hair color and make her exit, it's a change of pace, but even then, this is yet another of the forgettable stuff that she was doing at Warner's who hadn't yet figured her out and would even try to doll her up in movies like EX-LADY and FASHIONS OF 1934 and see what would come of it. Davis herself would have to wait a little longer before grinding the celluloid on OF HUMAN BONDAGE and announcing her forceful presence.

Interesting only for Davis and O'Brien

[slobone · 6/10 · 18 June 2009]

If you've already seen all the well-known studio films from the early 30's, it's fun to go back and fill in with some lesser known ones, like this typical Warner's B-movie.

Its director, Roy del Ruth, was strictly B-list at this point in his career. The supporting cast -- Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly, Glenda Farrell, Hugh Herbert -- are familiar from the Busby Berkeley movies, and each brings a stereotyped character briefly to life, which is what they were paid to do. Farrell in particular is funny as a gold-digger.

Pat O'Brien is actually the lead, although Bette Davis was given top billing. He's best known for playing butch types -- reporters, cops, soldiers, manly priests. (In this one, Butch is actually his character's name!) His performance here is surprisingly subtle and varied; it makes me want to see more of his movies.

Unfortunately the story is hopelessly implausible and unconvincing. Davis does the best she can with a confusingly-written part, although I can't quite tell whether she's trying to do an accent or not. And she changes from a blonde to a brunette halfway through -- was she shooting another picture at the same time?

The whole thing looks like it was thrown together in a couple of weeks. Probably the only really demanding scene to film was a car chase near the end, shot on location (or was it stock footage?).

All in all, probably worth 72 minutes of your time if you happen to run across it on TCM. Don't expect too much though...

Lost and Found

[lugonian · 7/10 · 16 July 2017]

BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS (First National Pictures for Warner Brothers, 1933), directed by Roy Del Ruth, is a fast-paced, pre-code production that has the distinction pre-dating those police shows on television by twenty or so years. The basic premise of what's to be shown is best described by its opening passage: "All over the world thousands of persons disappear every day. New York City alone reported over 27,00 missing last year. Why people prop from sight, where they go, and how they are found is the problem of a special and little known department of police – The Bureau of Missing Persons. Many incidents in this picture are taken from actual cases in police records." Or so they say.

Based on the story "Missing Men" by John Ayers and Carol Bird, the first half hour follows the day by day routine of what employees of the bureau go through on a daily basis. Joe (Allen Jenkins) checks the morgue to see if any one of the missing people on his list happens to be one of the deceased; Hank Slade (Hugh Herbert – in a straight non-comedic performance) has been looking for Gwendolyn Harris for the past six months, with no clue in sight. "Butch" Saunders (Pat O'Brien), a breezy detective with plenty of nerve (with catch phrase, "I bet you dollar six bids"), has been transferred to the bureau under Captain Webb (Lewis S. Stone), head of the department, where Saunders is to discipline himself by using common sense rather than his strong arm method. One of his first assignments is to locate Burton C. Kingman (Clay Clement), a married businessman having an affair with Alice Crane (Noel Francis). His next assignment is locating Caesar Paul (Tad Alexander), a famous boy violinist of 12, missing for ten days, who'd rather disappoint his parents (Marjorie Gateson and Wallis Clark) by being a regular boy with the fellas than having a concert career. Butch's biggest problems occur as Belle (Glenda Farrell), his wife with whom he's been separated for a year, coming to the scene demanding her allowance; and Norma Williams (Bette Davis), a former private secretary, whom Butch helps to locate her husband, Therme Roberts (Alan Dinehart), unaware that there's more to what Norma's been telling him to solve the case that involves a murder. Featured along with a huge assortment of Warner Brothers stock players (except for Lewis Stone on loan from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), include Ruth Donnelly (The Receptionist); Henry Kolker (Theodore Arno); George Chandler (Homer Howard); and Hobart Cavanaugh (Mr. Harris).

Although Bette Davis name heads the cast, she basically a supporting character whose character doesn't appear until 31 minutes into the start of the movie, which very much belongs to the third billed Pat O'Brien, making his Warner Brothers debut. Coming off best is the wisecracking Glenda Farrell as the gold-digging ex-wife whose three or four scenes add much to the antics at the bureau as she enters the scenes yelling for "Butchie Wutchie," yet there's one scene alone, involving Farrell, meant for laughs in 1933, might come across as a little disturbing today.

While basically serious when it comes to police methods, BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS does have its share of unintentional laughs, especially where Lewis Stone seriously and with a straight face orders his men to hire an airplane to follow a carrying pigeon to the location of a hideout of kidnappers. Interestingly, Bette Davis, looks years older to her true age here, especially later when she changes her hair color from blonde to brown. Her character also comes and goes throughout the story, with at one point showing up at her own funeral to see how she looks in a coffin after being reported dead.

Could it be possible some of the scenes depicted are based on actual incidents? Or is it possible that the writers just simply added doses of their own originality to embellish what actually happened? For O'Brien's debut for Warners, he showed great promise to become the studio's stock player, often opposite James Cagney later on. While O'Brien worked with Davis earlier in an independent reform school melodrama of HELL'S HOUSE (Capital Films, 1932), their paths would never meet again at Warners.

Decades before Turner Classic Movies would acquire the rights to this and other nearly forgotten Warner Brothers programmers from the thirties to forties, BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS did have its share of broadcasts prior to 1974 on WPHL, Channel 17, in Philadelphia (where I initially viewed this rare find), the now former home of the Warner Brothers classic film library. Distributed to video cassette in the 1990s, and DVD a decade later, this 75 minute programmer is never dull through its actions and performances. Remade by Warners as THE MISSING WITNESS (1937) with John Litel and Joan Dale, this original is much better, "I bet you dollar six bids." (***)

Pretty Good Pre-Code Programmer

[dougdoepke · 14 March 2017]

This pre-Code WB production is typical of the period—a fast-talking lead, a batch of loose dames, a rather comical supporting cast, and an upbeat tempo.

As tough, aggressive cop named "Butch", O'Brien machine-guns his dialogue in pretty strident tones. Trouble is it does get tiresome. As Butch, he's sent over to Missing Persons Bureau from his former assignment to hopefully mellow out. Fat chance. Anyway, the screenplay weaves a number of missing person cases into the narrative, with the Bette Davis case being primary. An authoritative, no-nonsense Lewis Stone presides over the bureau that makes you believe he can handle the thuggish new guy. This was before Stone became enshrined in the Andy Hardy series. On the whole, Davis may get the billing but it's really O'Brien's movie.

With the comically adept likes of Farrell, Jenkins, Herbert, and Donnelly, there're a number of chuckles. But what I really like is that bit of business at the coffee bar, where condiments slide back and forth like hockey pucks. I wonder if that was director Del Ruth, a generally underrated craftsman with occasional flair. Despite the title, there's no mystery but there is some suspense near the end. All in all, the 73-minutes is more like a fabric of characters colorfully interwoven.

entertaining AND stupid!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 27 May 2006]

This movie really can only be enjoyed if the viewers turn off their brain. That's because although the movie is unique and diverting, at times the plot and writing is abysmal. The plot has holes and improbabilities galore and the character played by Pat O'Brien must be most the stupidest and most unbelievably violent cop of the 1930s. If policemen had REALLY been this dumb, I don't know how we ever could have made it through the decade! Plus, if you combine all his civil rights violations (kicking in doors without warrants, arresting people recklessly and savagely beating his bigamist wife at the end of the film), you get a truly annoying character.

However, if you turn off your brain and watch the film JUST for its entertainment value, it's pretty good stuff. Plus, while it didn't do a lot to make Bette Davis a star, it did give her top billing AND her character was a lot better written than O'Brien's.

Entertaining AND stupid--that about says it all!

Judge Hardy heads the Missing Persons Division of NYPD

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 12 October 2005]

If you are a fan of the Hollywood films of the Thirties and Forties, one of the ways you can recognize one studio's product from another is the list of supporting players. Lewis Stone I don't think ever did another sound film away from MGM. Yet here he is in the Bureau of Missing Persons along with Warner Brothers regulars Pat O'Brien, Bette Davis, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, and Hugh Herbert.

As the head of the NYPD's Bureau of Missing Persons, Stone brings his firm, but wise head to the job he has. An additional job in this film is to break in new detective Pat O'Brien.

O'Brien's been transferred over there because he's a by the book cop who's not squeamish about getting rough, occasionally too rough at times. Later on at Warner Brothers, O'Brien played a lot of the same role in The Great O'Malley.

Both of those roles are a bit odd for him. O'Brien is usually tough, but smart. In most of their films together it's usually James Cagney who's the roughneck and O'Brien his wiser superior. They made their first film together the following year. I wouldn't be surprised if Jack Warner saw this and decided to give Cagney the O'Brien role and move O'Brien up to where Lewis Stone is.

In a fast 73 minutes the detectives deal with a bunch of cases, including finding that one of their own is a missing person. The most complex is one with Bette Davis coming in from Chicago and asking NYPD to find her boss. What she doesn't tell them is she's on the run for murdering that same party.

There's also a little after hours kanoodling with O'Brien and Davis that if things hadn't worked out could have landed O'Brien in one huge jackpot. But it's within his character who is impulsive to say the least.

A different slant on crime drama

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 20 November 2015]

Pat O'Brien was a likable Irish bloke...but some time ago I came to the conclusion that despite his success in films, he wasn't a very good actor. This film confirms that. O'Brien seemed to often think that good acting = yelling and talking fast.

Nevertheless, this is a fairly interesting -- and slightly offbeat -- movie. Lewis Stone (yes, Andy Hardy's father) heads the city's missing persons' office; he does so with a sense of wisdom and compassion. Unfortunately, O'Brien -- a former robbery detective -- gets assigned to Stone's department and doesn't have much of an idea about what his new job is all about.

This film is a good example of how studios will make it sound as if one actor or actress is one of the stars of the film because of fame they achieved later. Here, it's Bette Davis who has a comparatively small role who almost appears to get top billing. It was at least 5 years before Bette Davis came into her own, and here she doesn't get into the film until 30 minutes into a 75 minute film. However, despite being clearly a supporting actress here, she is very good.

A surprise here is Hugh Herbert. Mostly we know him for his silly little giggle in many comedies. But here he plays it fairly straight as a missing persons detective. The funny Allen Jenkins plays another detective, not exactly his typical role; but it works. Ruth Donelly, a usually entertaining character actress, doesn't have much of a role for us to enjoy.

A great film? no. But different enough to be intriguing.

For All Her Star Billing Bette Davis Made Her Appearance Rather Late!!!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 29 February 2012]

It was Darryl F. Zanuck who demanded Bette Davis be given her first "over the title" billing for "Ex Lady", a remake of Barbara Stanwyck's "Illicit", with a promotional tagline of "We Don't Dare Tell You How Daring It Is"!!! Bette Davis didn't like it, nor did the public. In spite of that, Warner's still considered her a rising star and she was again top billed in "Bureau of Missing Persons", originally titled "Headquarters". She was originally to be starred opposite George Brent who, because of his heavy workload, was replaced by Pat O'Brien who was fast making the glib, fast talking newspaper man character his own. Davis had already co-starred with him in the poverty rower "Hell's House". This less than entertaining film was littered with excellent players (so that wasn't the problem) including my own favourite, Glenda Farrell, who proved again and again that she was Warner's most under appreciated star.

Detective "Butch" Saunders (Pat O'Brien) is disgusted at being transferred to what he refers to as a "kindergarten" - the Bureau of Missing Persons. He has been transferred because he is hot headed and too strong armed and it is hoped a stint in B of M.P., under the calm influence of Capt. Webb (Lewis Stone, who else!!) will bring out Butch's sensitive side!!! Among the many cases that come through the bureau is Caesar Paul (Tad Alexander), a boy violinist, who has gone missing just days before his Symphony Hall concert. His parents are frantic, they see their meal ticket disappearing!! In another case, a business man, Mr. Kingman has disappeared, his wife and children are frantic but Joe (good old Allen Jenkins) thinks he is living with a blonde (gorgeous Noel Francis, why didn't she become a star, she was typecast if ever an actress was). "Butch" gets involved and almost bungles it through his rough handling of the blonde but Joe, however, plays it cool and brings in Kingman!! "I guess if there's any chance to do things the wrong way and you overlook it, it's because the day's too short and you didn't have the time"!! that's Webb's advice to Butch. When he uses his brain instead of his fists he finds little Caesar hiding out and trying to be a regular fellow, although when he sees the reunion between the boy and his parents he wishes he had left him at his hideout!!!

Bette Davis makes a very belated appearance and despite Butch's calling her beautiful, I thought she had very unflattering makeup. She is Norma Roberts, a worried wife who wants her husband found. Of course, being the love interest, Butch falls for her hard but she is not who she claims. She is also a missing person, Norma Williams, who has absconded from a charge of murdering her employer Thelm Roberts (Alan Dinehart). She has a fantastic tale - Thelm had a twin brother, a gibbering idiot, who is kept out of sight but when Thelm finds he is wanted for fraud and tax evasion he kills his brother and positions him at his office desk - suspicion naturally falls on his secretary, Norma, who escapes so she can find evidence to convict Thelm.

One of the highlights for me is the ever welcome Glenda Farrell as Belle, the money grubbing, bigamous wife of "Butchie Wutchie"!!!

Extremely Fast-Moving

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 24 November 2005]

This is one of the fastest-moving classic films I've ever seen....and very interesting. The story tells of the many people who report missing persons In New York City, and some of the wild stories behind these disappearances. Some are humorous, but most are sad. The main one here centers around Bette Davis, who is wanted in Chicago for allegedly murdering her husband. She meets up with Pat O'Brien, a tough-talking, hard-nosed cop who has just been reluctantly signed up to the bureau.

The dialog is dated but that's what makes some of these early 1930s films interesting. Today, O'Brien would have been slapped with numerous harassment charges the way he talked to women in here and then beat one up late in the movie.

Lewis Stone is excellent as the compassionate head of the bureau. All the characters are interesting and there are some neat plot twists near the end concerning Davis, O'Brien and another man whom Davis says is framing her. I never thought Davis was that attractive but, as young actress here, she looked hot, perhaps the best she ever looked.

Pat O'Brien Changes Hats

[boblipton · 6/10 · 11 March 2020]

It is a typically fun high-speed Warner's. Cocky detective Pat O'Brien has just been kicked downstairs to the eponymous branch, wearing a derby hat. Bureau chief Lewis Stone tells him that his old-fashioned brutality won't work here.

the movie starts off as a series of vignettes about the sort of people who go missing and why, ranging from cringeworthy (Hugh Herbert and Alan Jenkins argue about how put together "jigsaws" -- corpses that have been chopped up) to amusing -- one recovered husband had disappeared because his young wife had been too physically demanding.

Despite the speed of the speech (except by Stone, who maintains the same emphatic style that he would use in Andy Hardy movies) and the zip cuts, the real story doesn't begin until half an hour into this 73-minute movie, when Bette Davis walks in, asking about her missing husband. The story quickly becomes complicated and sustains interest to the end, where O'Brien wears a Fedora to symbolize his redemptive modernity.

It's an unassuming movie , meant for fun, and it goes to demonstrate the brilliance of Warners' production in this period. Both the brutality and gags are kept offstage, lending a blase attitude towards the best and the worst. Herbert gets a rare straight outing, and does a good job. It's a pity that the movies seem incapable of speed and fun like this anymore.

A 75 minute series of vaudeville sketches.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 1 August 2012]

There is a great "Crime Doesn't Pay" short somewhere in this overlong programmer filled with witty lines and practically every New York style character actor that Warner Brothers had under contract in 1933. For 20 minutes, this tale of the bureau simply shows (in clichéd dialog) the different style of cases that they deal in. Then top billed Bette Davis pops in for what plot the film does have involving a supposedly missing husband, romances aggressive cop Pat O'Brien, and then a predictable caper involving the murder of her former boss's brother (from Chicago) takes over.

Lewis Stone is basically playing Judge Hardy in his role as the head of the bureau, while Allen Jenkins, Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh give their usual charactered performances. Ruth Donnelly as usual gets the best lines, and there is a nice pay off concerning her and one of the bureau's cases. There's funny moments of a report of a missing person (that turns out to be a pet) and a woman reporting her husband and cook missing who only wants the cook found. A longer bit concerns transfered officer Pat O'Brien searching for a missing 12 year old who is hiding from his parents so he can just be a normal kid rather than play the violin all day. Isn't this something the Bowery Boys later did? Tad Alexander (the prince from "Rasputin and the Empress") is admirable as the unfortunate kid, while Marjorie Gateson is instantly recognizable as the hoity-toity mother. Glenda Farrell is given the unpleasant character of O'Brien's ex-wife who speaks baby talk to him while demanding alimony. Her payoff scene is outrageously violent.

The film never really seems to be about the real bureau (least of all, New York City circa 1933). In the 1940's, film noir would take on cases from the bureau, most notably 1948's brilliant "The Naked City".

"So, You Been Smokin' Hop?"

[davidcarniglia · 8/10 · 27 November 2018]

I didn't think I'd like this very much--but it was surprisingly good. Usually dousing a crime drama with comedy (and there's buckets of it here) doesn't work too well. But the tone in Bureau of Missing Persons is actually its best aspect. Pat O'Brien as the detective Butch dominates the screen, but both Bette Davis (as his nemesis) and Glenda Ferrell (as his wife) spice things up nicely.

It's a pretty good mystery as well; convoluted, but plausible in this fairly exaggerated context. While Butch reels off one-liners like firecrackers, there's still room for Captain Webb (Lewis Stone) to anchor the story with his good-hearted paternalistic flair. Even though Butch is presented as a jerk, treating women (especially his wife) like dolls or children, he nonetheless shows authentic understanding in the scenes with the rich kid trying to break away from his overprotective parents. These compassionate scenes are rendered with an earnestness devoid of false sentimentality. The comic antics of nearly all the characters show, on the other hand, a droll sense of detachment from the daily grind. It's as though Butch and Webb are glad to have the opportunity to break out of the rat race by being decent.

What drives the plot though is the rat race; Belle (Ferrell) and Norma (Davis) are both manipulators, complicating the lives of those around them. At least Norma's motives aren't tainted with the deliberate deception of Belle's. Butch is precisely in the middle of their schemes; that what he started with Norma didn't in fact turn out to be infidelity becomes a crucial ingredient of the surprise happy ending. What blows things up is the clever trap that Butch sets for Norma, and which scoops up the 'dead' husband/employer Therme (Alan Dinehart). It's perfectly fitting with the movie's tone that a fake funeral is the bait. It's macabre, and in bad taste; but it makes sense, and it works.

Things get a bit too free-and-easy as even the office secretary turns out to be someone else. And then there's the slight problem of Belle having two husbands. It's just a bit too convenient for Butch to become available for Norma--and at almost the exact moment when she's 'squared' herself with the Captain. Still, Bureau of Missing Persons is highly entertaining. The pacing is incredibly brisk, and most of the plot actually hangs together. I don't think it hurts much that the Nirma/Therme plot doesn't begin until the movie's second half; there's plenty going on from the beginning.

Despite all the madcap situations, there's enough character showing to add a human touch. In a way, this is a life-affirming experience; all the more so for the lack of straight-and-narrow personalities. Since almost all of the characters are flawed, if not a little off, it's easier to identity and sympathize with them. 8/10.

Never stops moving O'brien and Davis at their best

[Nate-48 · 7/10 · 27 November 2018]

Pat O'Brien and Bette Davis couldn't have been any better. Instant chemistry between them in this great pre-code film. Very snappy dialogue with the influence of Cagney on O'Brien apparent. Movies like this show you why they instituted a code even though I don't agree with it - you can see how certain parts of the movie could have a bad influence on impressionable people though overall the power of O'Brien and Davis carries this movie to great heights. My only major problem was the ending.

Take My Wife, Please!

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 21 October 2011]

For getting too rough on robbery cases, New York City detective Pat O'Brien (as "Butch" Saunders) is transferred to the "Bureau of Missing Persons" where he must answer to MGM stalwart Lewis Stone (as Captain Webb) who appears to be moonlighting at First National-Warner Bros. Typical of the missing is businessman Clay Clement (as Burton C. Kingman) - found honeymooning with a woman who is not his wife. Also located by Mr. O'Brien is 12-year-old prodigy Tad Alexander (as Caesar Paul)...

When her husband runs away with their cook, a woman tells Mr. Stone, "Never mind about him, I want my cook!"

After a half hour getting to know smooth-talking detective Allen Jenkins (as Joe Musik) and the cast, the main case gets started when beautiful young Bette Davis (as Norma Williams) arrives on screen, to report her groom missing. Very obviously, Ms. Davis is holding back some important details about her so-called missing husband. Business is mixed with pleasure as O'Brien, separated from so-called wife Glenda Farrell (as Belle) for a year, is attracted to Davis. Stay tuned for murder and other mayhem.

***** Bureau of Missing Persons (9/8/33) Roy Del Ruth ~ Pat O'Brien, Bette Davis, Lewis Stone, Allen Jenkins

Excellent B-movie feature

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 31 December 2002]

'Bureau of Missing Persons' is a solid B-movie programmer of the type that Warner Brothers did so well, featuring excellent lead performances by Bette Davis (not yet at her full stardom) and MGM stalwart Lewis Stone (on loan-out to Warners) as Captain Webb, the head of the Missing Persons department of New York City's police force. Pat O'Brien, in his cynical tough-guy mode, plays a hardboiled cop who's been excessively violent in his previous assignments, and who is re-assigned to Webb's division. There's a fine scene early on, in which Stone informs O'Brien that the Bureau of Missing Persons is different from the other police divisions ... because they specialise in finding people rather than making arrests.

Some of the finest Warner Bros supporting players are here, including Allen Jenkins (always excellent, but even better than usual here) as O'Brien's partner, plus Glenda Farrell and the underrated Ruth Donnelly. Two of my favourite supporting actors, Dewey Robinson and Charles Sellon, are fine in small roles. Even Hugh Herbert is less annoying than usual here, avoiding his usual 'Woo, woo! Oh my!' schtick.

The film is somewhat episodic, yet realistic (as usual for Warners) when O'Brien goes from case to case. There's a touching sequence in which he's assigned to locate a boy genius who has inexplicably vanished. The way O'Brien solves the case is convincing ... and what happened to the boy, and why, is extremely plausible. (A good performance by Tad Alexander as the prodigy.) The film has excellent direction by Roy Del Ruth, an underrated craftsman who shunted among the major studios, rather than concentrating his talents in one place.

SPOILER COMING. The excellent character actor Alan Dinehart is less impressive than usual here, playing a role that's less plausible than usual for him. Dinehart plays a crooked businessman named Roberts who turns up dead when his crimes catch up to him, apparently a suicide ... until his crony Bette Davis reveals that Roberts conveniently had an identical twin brother, totally unknown to the world, who was shut away since birth because he was 'a babbling idiot' (as Davis puts it). Sure enough, Roberts faked his own suicide by murdering his twin. This is utterly implausible. The facial muscles of severely retarded people are much slacker than the faces of normal people, and over the course of 30 or 40 years the cumulative difference in muscle tone becomes so pronounced that a retarded man (even a dead one) could never be mistaken for a normal man. Coincidentally, I saw 'Bureau of Missing Persons' at an art-house cinema in New York City, shortly after the scandal in which a corrupt New York politician named Donald Manes committed suicide. Manes was survived by his identical twin brother, and for a moment I thought: 'You don't suppose...?' But Donald Manes's twin brother wasn't retarded.

I'll rate 'Bureau of Missing Persons' 7 points out of 10. It's a short feature with a fast-moving plot, and no annoying romantic subplots. I recommend it.

Meh

[journeygal · 7/10 · 5 August 2019]

This is based on the Missing Persons dept at the NYPD. Most of the "missing" are husbands who stayed out late or wives who ran off with their lover and the like, but there are the occasional truly missing who turn up dead. There were too many micro-stories going on to try and make sense of it, but the main storyline is that a woman named Norma Roberts (Bette) shows up looking for her missing husband. Detective Joe Musik is looking into it, but mainly he is a creeper mashing on her because she is so pretty (Bette was 24 in real life and truthfully she looked better in her 30s) Joe has a wife whom he only sees when she wants money, so apparently this makes it okay for him to be blatantly hitting on Norma. As it turns out Norma's missing man is not her hub, but an ex boss who sort of framed her for the murder of his brother (of course, he did it) The only bright spot in the movie was the captain, played by Pat O'Brien, who reminds me of actor Harry Morgan.

Pat O'Brien does James Cagney...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 8 December 2018]

...In fact, Warner Brothers seemed very confused as to who they wanted to play the hothead with a (usually) good heart until the production code era. Then it was O'Brien's level headed guy to Cagney's hothead. But here O'Brien is still in hothead mode, as he is Butch, a detective assigned to NYC's Bureau of Missing Persons - the part of the NYPD that tracks down missing persons or sometimes their corpses - because Butch has gotten to be too rough as a regular detective. Hopefully here he will learn to use his head.

Lewis Stone takes a vacation from MGM to play Captain Webb, head of the bureau, with a Judge Hardy style of leadership. It's interesting to see his humane treatment of people who must be informed that the missing is deceased, and how he tries to restore the deliberately missing to their families with minimum embarrassment to the missing or the families. Here we get into precode territory a couple of times.

Bette Davis plays Norma Roberts, a woman who comes to the bureau looking for her missing husband. But to be married to the guy she knows ridiculously little about what he looks like and his habits when Butch questions her. What goes on here? Watch and find out.

This is a great Warner Bros. precode in the Warner Bros. tradition that has an unusual setting. With Ruth Donnelly as the bureau's secretary with mouth and attitude to spare as usual, Glenda Farrell with a cameo role as Butch's estranged wife who is always coming in to clean out his pockets (it was the Depression, a girl's got to eat, you know?), and Allen Jenkins as a bureau detective who for once plays a capable guy who is in the know.

Simplistic Movie

[view_and_review · 4/10 · 27 February 2024]

"Bureau of Missing Persons" (BoMP) is a rather simplistic movie with very underdeveloped characters. There was a captain who was a fatherly type who always had the right answer and knew what was best. That included keeping a man's infidelity hidden from his wife by cooking up an amnesia story for him (for the sake of his wife and kids, of course). The guy literally abandoned his family to be with his side chick and Capt. Webb (Lewis Stone), in all of his wisdom, decided to give the man an out because, I'm assuming, he was able to divine that the best thing for all involved was to keep his cheating hidden.

There was also Det. Butch Saunders (Pat O'Brien) who was demoted to the BoMP because he was a hot head who believed force was the answer to every cop problem. He was lusting after Norma Roberts (Bette Davis), a woman supposedly looking for her missing husband. He had such a hard on for her it never occurred to him that she could be lying about her missing husband.

Of course, she wasn't lying, because beautiful young women that cops fall in love with are incapable of lying. Furthermore, she was wanted for murder, and that's definitely something beautiful young women are incapable of. She was in New York tracking down Therme Roberts (Alan Dinehart), the man she was accused of killing.

There was Belle Saunders (Glenda Farrell), an already married woman who managed to rope Det. Saunders into a marriage so that she could stop by the precinct once a week yelling "Buthcy!" and hold out her hand for money. It was a weak role for Glenda Farrell. She deserved much better. She was physically beaten by Butchy for lying. In fact, she was beaten in a police HQ and everyone went about their business like spousal abuse was an acceptable part of marriage. I suppose it was.

Generally, this was a lousy movie. They supposedly took some of the missing person cases from real police files, but that doesn't mean they'll be interesting to watch in a movie.

Something that did interest me was the mention of the word "rape." The cops were sitting around talking about the different police divisions and mentioned "rape men" referring to the detectives who specialized in sexual assault crimes. Of the hundreds of movies I've watched from 1934 and before, I'd never heard the word uttered even though there were movies in which it did happen. I guess it can be spoken when being used to refer to anything besides a rape that actually happened. Go figure.

Free on Odnoklassniki.

Fun Movie

[davidjanuzbrown · 9/10 · 20 November 2015]

I have never been the biggest Bette Davis fan (nor for that matter Joan Crawford), maybe because I find them unappealing (unlike better actresses such as Barbara Stanwyck, Irene Dunne, Claudette Colbert, and naturally, Myrna Loy. (both in ability and especially looks)). But I tried this movie because the only Davis movies I generally like are Pre-Codes, and those where she is secondary to the likes of Cagney, Bogart and Robinson. In my opinion the main reason to watch this movie is the snappy dialogue. Basically, Davis who got top billing is not the one with the best lines (its Glenda Farrell (Belle)). The main star is Pat O'Brien (Butch Saunders), who really is the main star. There have been a few comments about the ending spoilers ahead: Its where Saunders gives a beating to his bigamist wife Belle, who just uses him for money (three times she demands money from O'Brien while married to someone else)).but if you look at her as a cartoon type character like Betty Boop or Jessica Rabbit (basically not serious), its nothing to be offended about. Saunders is interesting because he is a not to bright cop, who thinks from start to finish during the movie that he is going to the top. Of course, he will not because Captain Webb (Lewis Stone), will run the Department as long as he likes, plus Norma Roberts (Davis) is the smarter one, who has him wrapped around her finger (although he does not know it). Basically a fun movie 9/10 stars.

Great Cast, Crazy Story

[Michael_Elliott · 9 August 2012]

Bureau of Missing Persons (1933)

*** (out of 4)

Insane, over-the-top, crazy, silly but oh so entertaining drama from Warner throws pretty much everything at the viewer hoping any of it will stick. The film takes place at the title division where Detective Butch Saunders (Pat O'Brien) is sent to work because he's too violent for the other locations. Along the way his Captain (Lewis Stone) sets down new rules for him, which requires brains and not violence but Butch meets his match in a woman (Bette Davis) that he falls for not knowing she's wanted for murder. BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS is everything you'd want in a "B" picture from Warner. You've got a terrific cast, a wild and wacky story, some violence and just one strange scene after another. This is really one crazy little movie for a numbers of reasons. One of the biggest is that Detective Butch lives up to his reputation of being violent as he's not even afraid to slap a woman or two around. What's so funny (or unfunny depending on how you see it) is that the film goes for comic relief by having him smack around women. I won't ruin what happens at the very end of the movie but to say it's a little bit uncomfortable would be an understatement. Of course, O'Brien was a genius at playing this wise cracking, fast talking tough guys and he's a lot of fun here. Davis gets top billing even though she doesn't appear until the 35-minute mark but she's good here and the scenes with O'Brien are a lot of fun. Stone is also very good in his part and we get nice supporting bits by Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins and Hugh Herbert. It's best that one goes into this movie with their brain turned off because the "mystery" of the so-called "plot" is pretty stupid and there are so many holes in it that it never makes too much sense. The entire film remains entertaining because you really never know what's going to happen next. Fans of these type of Warner pictures should have a lot of fun with this one.

Fast, fast pacing makes this one a must-see.

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 22 May 2018]

Director: ROY DEL RUTH. Screenplay: Robert Presnell. Based on the book Missing Men by John H. Ayers and Carol Bird. Photography: Barney McGill. Film editor: James Gibbon. Art director: Robert Haas. Producer: Henry Blanke. Copyright 14 September 1933 by First National Pictures. A Warner Bros release. New York opening at the Strand: 8 September 1933. U.S. release: 2 September 1933. U.K. release: 3 March 1934. Australian release: 10 January 1934. 75 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Most missing persons cases brought to the Bureau's attention are routine police work but some requiring special attention are turned over to the chief, Captain Webb (Lewis Stone) who believes that police resources, deductive reasoning and patience will usually resolve every dilemma. His assistant, Butch Saunders (Pat O'Brien), is a thick-headed detective transferred from the strong-arm squad because he has been excessively brutal. Saunders considers it working in "the kindergarten of the Police Department." His discontentment suffers the additional harassment of having Belle (Glenda Farrell), his ex-wife, show up periodically at his office to collect her alimony payments and make caustic comments about his new job.

One day Saunders meets a young woman (Bette Davis) who has applied for help in locating her husband, Therme Roberts, missing for several weeks. Completely taken in by her story, he makes a date with her and promises to look into her case personally. After Webb reads his report on the girl's case, Saunders learns her name is Norma Phillips and she is wanted by the Chicago police for the murder of the man she claims is her husband. Webb orders Saunders to keep his appointment with her and bring her in.

COMMENT: A short (75 minutes), snappy, character-filled essay into the work of New York's famous Missing Persons Bureau. The treatment is, of course, wholly fictitious and there is, when you come down to it, very little action. The climax is especially tame, but it is certainly more realistic than the usual shoot-out, and the pace is so fast the lack of the usual brawls and slug-fests, gun duels and high-speed car chases (there is one chase but is a comparatively sedate follow-that-cab affair) is scarcely missed.

Pat O'Brien is perfectly cast as the fast-talking, strong-armed detective though his perpetual shouting tends to get on our nerves. Bette Davis is particularly skilful in a role that is more difficult than it appears on the surface. The subtle way in which she conveys her nervousness and hesitation during her first interview with O'Brien, leads us to believe that she is not telling the truth; and later on she is able to put across an absolutely fantastic story with a certain measure of credibility (it is not her fault that the script has holes in it, e.g. how did she know the dead man was the twin brother when she had only seen him once and the twins were identical? And in any event, in view of the secrecy - which it seems even the police were unable to penetrate - it seems most unlikely that she could ever have encountered the twin in the first place? And what about hospital records and what about the deceased man's estate?).

Whilst this basic story is serious, most of the other encounters and sub-plots at the Bureau of Missing Persons are treated in a comic fashion. The material isn't really all that amusing but it is delivered at such a brisk, machine-gun pace by such a goodly array of character players like Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly and Hugh Herbert (here repressing his giggling laugh trademark), that it comes across with a fair amount of amusement.

Lewis Stone (billed as Lewis S. Stone in the credit titles), looking much younger than Judge Hardy, is not altogether happily cast as the bureau chief. He is too sententious and lacks sparkle, but the rest of the support cast is fine and there are some pleasing, unbilled cameos by such performers as Dewey Robinson (as an incongruously polite tough) and Hobart Cavanaugh.

Roy Del Ruth's direction is unobtrusive and could by no means be described as imaginative. But he does belt the refreshingly realistic, pre-censorship script across with such a punch and pace that despite its age the film has dated very little. It is mainly the women's costumes that look dated and laughably dowdy. Other production credits are first-rate and by double-bill standards, this is certainly a superior offering.

"I'm in charge now!" was one of the most famous Real Life quotes . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 13 December 2018]

. . . from the 1980s. The shocking import of "A. Haig's" cryptic announcement--televised live to a stunned USA at the time--was spelled out by the clairvoyant prognosticators at the always eponymous Warner Bros. nearly half a century BEFORE the would-be "Travis Bickle" copycat shot up the Commander-in-Chief's party, a contingency totally foreseen in BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS. Warner uses this screwball crime caper flick to warn the American populace of (The Then) Far Future about its upcoming seven lean years in which a body double and the Tinsel Town "B"-movie starlet\First Lady's Personal Astrologist would jointly rule the USA. Everyone thinks that "Norma" has murdered "Therme" during the events covered by MISSING PERSONS, when it is ACTUALLY Therme who has slain his identical twin brother to beat his own embezzlement rap. MISSING PERSONS is Warner's way of letting their savants remind America that ALL Pachyderm Party Presidents have body doubles waiting in the wings to finish up their terms whenever an ACTUAL Pachyderm POTUS gets whacked. Only a select few overlords are aware of this (plus Warner Bros. prophets, and perceptive movie watchers). Back in 1981 not even General Haig was in the loop. But thanks to MISSING PERSONS, Warner Bros. fans were "in the know" throughout "Iran-Contra," the S & L debacle, "Project ELF," the State of the Union Space Murders, the Lebanon Lunacy, the Grenada "Invasion," and the many other disasters of the 1980s.

People Finding Lost People

[GManfred · 2 December 2015]

Every day the front desk of the Bureau of Missing Persons is crowded with people trying to locate loved ones who have turned up missing - some by accident and some on purpose. Not sure if this picture is accurate in its conception of a BMP, but it's a fascinating look at how it might be. It presents a series of vignettes, some funny some serious, of different cases the Bureau might handle.

The main focus is on the newest arrival at the Bureau, a cop (Pat O'Brien)assigned to the Bureau after one too many brutal arrests. He is assigned the case of a woman (Bette Davis) looking for her husband, and with an air of suspicion attached. O'Brien is a strong-armed sort who is assertive and, as is his custom, talks in a loud, penetrating staccato voice which can soon become tiresome. Davis is very pretty here. Her looks did not hold up and grew harder as she got older. There is good chemistry between the two and they rise above the muddled material presented here, dated though it is.

If you are a Golden Age fan, there are many familiar faces, among them Lewis Stone as the Bureau chief, Glenda Farrell as O'Brien's estranged (and strange) wife, Hugh Herbert as a Bureau detective and many more. This formed the basis for my rating because, as previously stated, the material here is hum-drum and somewhat confusing. I thought the picture was fun and better than several reviewers gave it credit for.

Oy

[blanche-2 · 23 October 2011]

Pat O'Brien, Lewis Stone, Bette Davis, Glenda Farrell, and Allen Jenkins star in "Bureau of Missing Persons," a 1933 film from Warner Brothers. I noticed that one person who posted said that this was an extremely fast-moving film. I thought it would never end.

O'Brien plays Butch Saunders, a detective who is thought to have been a little too violent in his police work, so he is assigned the Bureau. He turns out to be good at his job.

Davis plays a young woman whose husband is missing. Normally in her early films, Davis is very blond, and very glamorous. Here she's not. Her role is an interesting one, with a couple of twists. She's very good, of course, but I doubt she would have been happy in this type of role for her entire career.

There are some other plot lines going on, with Lewis Stone a kindly man who tries to help people, and Glenda Farrell gives a fun performance as Belle. It's a familiar cast in their very young days and worth seeing for that reason. I admit I found it dragged a little.

Vanishing and reappearing persons of interest

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 23 September 2023]

The advertising for this film plays up a sexy romantic angle, but the story itself is more of a crime comedy. The two leads, Pat O'Brien and Bette Davis, had previously teamed up in a coming-of-age trifle called HELL'S HOUSE. Originally, O'Brien and Lewis Stone, on loan from MGM, had top billing, with Miss Davis third in the credits (she doesn't appear until around the 30-minute mark, and this is just a 72 minute movie). But when Warners/First National reissued the title in the late 1930s, Davis was the reigning queen of the studio, so the title sequence was redesigned to put her name at the top.

The film's screenplay is based on a book written by a retired NYPD captain whose job was to oversee missing persons cases. The Lewis Stone character is undoubtedly based on him. The book, called Missing Men, centers primarily on men who've disappeared. Most likely these were guys that ran afoul of the mob and were either rubbed out or sent packing. But this motion picture includes a variety of missing persons cases, not all of them involving men but women as well. In fact, Bette Davis' character goes missing at one point, and investigator O'Brien must stage a phony funeral to flush her out.

Fans of WB precodes will likely take pleasure in seeing contract players Allen Jenkins, Hugh Herbert, Ruth Donnelly and Glenda Farrell in supporting roles. Farrell as usual has an attention grabbing part, this time cast as a gold digger married to O'Brien. She frequently shows up while he's working to shake him down for an allowance. There are several cute scenes with her referring to him as Butchy Wutchy, to his great annoyance.

Fortunately for O'Brien, he learns that Farrell had an earlier marriage to someone else, and it is still valid. This allows him to ditch her for good and permanently take up with Davis at the end.

There's a frenetic feel that envelopes BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS, probably because there are so many subplots happening simultaneously that get crammed into the standard running time for a B-picture. Not all the subplots are put across successfully, but there is a very good one involving a child violinist who has run away from home because he just wants to be a normal kid with normal activities. The mother (Marjorie Gateson) arrives at the police station to reclaim him, and she doesn't seem to have learned much about her son's behavior. In fact, she's already getting him ready for their next concert!

In addition to the quickly paced narrative, we have Pat O'Brien known for his fast talking antics, not unlike Lee Tracy in similar adventures. We know things will pop right along...and there won't be a moment of boredom in this offering. That's a good thing for those of us who want a slight diversion from today's wearying routines. We can find amusement looking in on a world with mysterious goings-on that lead to vanishing and reappearing persons of interest.