Special Investigator (1936) User Reviews (10)

Strong plot and lively characters in compact crime drama

[csteidler · 7/10 · 15 February 2020]

Crafty lawyer Richard Dix just got another criminal off the hook. The judge chews him out for being an enemy to society. When Dix's own brother says that he agrees with the judge, Dix turns thoughtful; when the brother is murdered, Dix suddenly quits his law practice and tells his friends that he is going away. He does a little research then heads to a small Nevada town on the trail of some stolen gold....

Richard Dix is solid as the self-appointed investigator who switches to the side of justice but is not afraid to mix with the crooks. Having heard that the gang is processing their stolen bullion in an old mine and then selling it as ore, he sets up a law office in the nearby town and works on infiltrating their operation.

Strong supporting characters really liven up this well-written adventure. Joe Sawyer is excellent as the tough guy who runs the mine--he wears a ranger hat, talks with his pipe in his mouth, and is suspicious of everyone. J. Carrol Naish is superb as the outfit's big boss--he's been shot and is laid up in bed but manages (barely) to maintain control over his gang. It's a small role but Naish delivers his lines in a terrific Edward G. Robinson snarl. ("Among fighters I was a fighter. But among scum like you, I'm a king.") Margaret Callahan is convincing as Naish's not easily intimidated sister. Having arrived by bus and joined the crooks to tend to her wounded brother, she gets to know Dix as well.

As Dix's investigation moves along, tension among the crooks bubbles, and it all builds to an exciting climax. Overall, this fast paced B adventure packs a lot into an hour. Very good.

I always knew that guy wasn't right!

[kapelusznik18 · 7/10 · 24 January 2014]

***SPOILERS*** The square jawed Dick Tracy look alike Richard Dix is mob mouthpiece, shyster lawyer, Bill Fenwick who after his kid brother George, Owen Davis Jr, was gunned down in a shootout with the Selton Gange decided to go straight. That's in dropping his mob connections and clients and get the mobster who murdered his brother mob boss Eddie Selton, J. Carrol Naish. Getting a tip that the Selton Gang is hiding out in and around the Quartzburg mining town in Navada Fenwick using the allies of Dick Galt a real-estate lawyer and examiner shoots down there to get the goods on Sealton and bring him and his gang to justice.

As things turn out Fenwick unknowingly gets involved with Selton's sister Virginia, Margaret Callahan, whom he met driving through town while he was moonlighting, to make ends meet, as a gas station attendant. What the love sick Fenwick, who fell for Virginia like a ton of bricks, didn't know was that she was on her way to see her on the run from the police brother Eddie Sealton who was recovering from gunshot wounds in the shoot-out where his brother George was killed.

It's Selton's second in command Jimmy Plummer, Joe Sawyer, who smells a rat in all this "lovey dovey" relationship between Virginia and Fenwick, who's using the name Bick Galt, that soon proves him right. But by then the lid is off and the local police and federal agents are on to him who've been alerted by Fenwick of his and his gang's whereabouts. With the law bearing down on him Plummer decides to take over the Selton Gang and ice it's boss Eddie Sealton only to end up in a nut cracker like squeeze play from not only the law and Fenwick but Eddie Selton himself.

Richard Dix was very impressive as lawyer and later undercover investigator Bill Fernwick that it made you wonder why his career as a lawman and private investigator in films wasn't as successful as the many other actors who played the same parts and were far more successful, career wise, in them.

Crime Drama Out West

[LeonLouisRicci · 6/10 · 22 January 2014]

From a Story by the Seemingly Forever In Print Creator of Perry Mason, Erle Stanley Gardner, this Slightly Above Average B-Movie Stars the also Prolific Richard Dix. With His Square Jaw, Dick Tracy Look and Handsome Ruggedness the Actor Managed to Work for Four Decades.

The Deep-Voiced, One Note Thespian is out to Avenge the Death of His Brother at the Hands of Gangsters and Travels Westward Ho, so much of this Crime Drama takes place at a Ranch and in a Small Dusty Town near Reno.

Things move along quite Nicely with the Tension Halted at Times for some Romance, this is a Not-Bad Entry that just Rises above Pedestrianism because of its Oily Villain, J. Carrol Naish trying to keep His Band of Cutthroats at bay while Bed-Ridden, Creating some much Needed Suspense.

Overall Worth a Watch but there aren't Enough Genre Flourishes in the Film to Amount to much more than a Time-Passer with an Atypical Out West Setting, where Dix and the Director must have felt at Home Considering the Number of Westerns They Cranked Out.

Effective little crime yarn

[searchanddestroy-1 · 17 July 2008]

It seems that this RKO feature is very like a Paramount one from this time, crime films - gangster ones, I mean - with the likes of J Carrol Naish, Anthony Quinn, Akim Tamiroff, Lloyd Nolan. I did not know RKO pictures made crime films like that. A discovery for me. But a pretty good one.

No boredom at all in the viewing of this film. Of course, we have already seen this topic a hundred times. The good guy - Dix - trying to infiltrate a gang lead by a dangerous fellow - J Caroll Naish - and who falls in love of his sister - the gangster, I mean - no surprise. And predictable results.

But it's worth seeing it.

And Joe Sawyer in the "heavy" character is also juicy.

Try it if you can.

mobsta film

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 14 October 2022]

Stars richard dix, margaret callahan. Erik rhodes is gangster benny gray, who is found innocent when he is defended in court by fenwick. But when fenwick's own brother is knocked off by criminals, he rethinks who he will defend in the future. He decides to go track down his brother's killer, and bumps into virginia; she just happens to be the sister of the guy who knocked off fenwick's brother. He doesn't know that yet. But it's all going to hit the fan when the gangsters figure out who he is! It's not bad.... kind of a low budget bit, but still fun to watch. Rhodes frequently played the smarmy lover in the fred astaire, ginger roger films. It's hard to take him too seriously as a rough, tough mob guy. Thank goodness they don't go overboard with the "yeah, see" stuff that became the trademark of so many gangsters (at least in the movies) in the 1930s. Directed by lou king, story by erle gardner, who also wrote perry mason! Gardner was an actual attorney, and had a cold case club, which helped get innocent people out of jail. Richard dix died young at 56.

An enjoyable little film.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 22 March 2014]

Bill Fenwick (Richard Dix) is a very famous and well-to-do lawyer. However, he's gotten some bad people off and it's bothering his conscience. So, instead of becoming a mouthpiece for the mob, he decides to do something to help others. So, he travels out west and becomes a special undercover agent for the government. Unfortunately, the leader of the mob has a sister who has fallen for 'Richard' (Bill's undercover name). What's to become of the criminals with their fake gold mine as well as 'Bill's' girl?

This is a B-movie from RKO and the studio made quite a few lower-budgeted films starring Richard Dix. While he's pretty much forgotten today, Dix was a fine actor and quite likable--even though he wasn't exactly handsome leading man material. The writing is solid as is Dix's performance. Worth your time.

Special Investigator is not that special...

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 21 April 2017]

... because it basically throws just about every crime drama cliché and plot device from the 1930s into a bowl, mixes, and bakes until done, with one rather interesting exception which I will get to later.

Richard Dix is the titular "Special Investigator", but first he is a defense attorney for guilty gangsters, Bill Fenwick. He gets the big checks from the acquitted gangsters, he has the stereotypical bleached blonde "moll" type for a girlfriend covered in furs, and he has a little brother who is a Fed. Little brother George comes into Bill's spacious office right before he is to be part of a raid to get Bill to see the light of what he is doing by putting crooks back on the street. Then George goes right out and gets killed by 'Eddie' Selton (J. Carrol Naish) in that raid. The gangsters fought back with everything they had because they had half a million in gold bullion.

His brother's death at the hands of Selton, recently acquitted of a murder charge due to the efforts of a lawyer just like himself makes him abandon his profession. He wants to join up with the Feds and help then grab the criminal responsible for George's death, but the question is where? That question is answered, oddly enough, by the criminal he just got acquitted who considers Bill a friend of his. He says that gold is not a good commodity. You can't ship it, you can't use it to buy anything. He says the only way you could ever get your money back would be to turn it into ore from a fake mine. This is the one interesting plot device I was talking about as I don't think I have ever seen this trick employed before.

So Bill does join up with the Feds and poses as a new small town lawyer near a mine that has recently struck gold owned by a bunch of outsiders that the locals had never seen before. But he needs to get inside that carefully guarded mine to figure out if it is indeed Selton's gang trying to launder their bullion. He finds a few excuses in the person of a female visitor to the ranch with whom he hits it off. She happens to be Eddie Selton's sister who has shown up concerned about her brother's health since he was wounded in the shootout with the Feds back in Chicago. Bill does not know she is Selton's sister, and she doesn't know this small time lawyer is in fact an undercover Fed. Yet they genuinely fall for one another.

In another subplot, the trigger happy meathead members of Selton's gang do not comprehend the word "subtlety" when dealing with the locals and are starting to think they don't need Selton after all, especially with him bed ridden.

How will this all work out? Watch and find out.

It's interesting to watch everybody going to Reno for their nightlife since Las Vegas won't even be started until after WWII. It is also interesting to see this "gold problem" among thieves in a western environment. It had only been two years before that gold coins went out of circulation.

I'd watch this one for Richard Dix who is a versatile actor who can play mouthpiece, special fed officer, and greenhorn lawyer all with great style. Honorable mention has to go to Erik Rhodes as Benny Gray, the guy Bill got acquitted in the first part of the film. He'd be a great guy if he wasn't a gangster. It's a departure from his parts as the comic relief in the Fred and Ginger films.

Thar's gold in that mine...

[MikeMagi · 5/10 · 23 January 2014]

Back in the days of that mixed metaphor, Radio Pictures, you needn't need much of a premise to make a B movie. In this case, for example, the crooks solve the difficulty of selling stolen gold bullion by palming it off as gold ore. Nobody bothers to ask how that trick is pulled off. Or why no one is suspicious of a gang of out-of-town hoods holed up in an old Nevada mine. But after his kid brother is gunned down by the gang, ex-underworld lawyer Richard Dix turns special investigator and sets out to catch the bad guys. Stolid as ever, Dix manages two expressions -- his mouth creases up slightly when he's happy and down when he's gloomy. Margaret Callahan (who quit acting not long after this movie was made) wanders in as the comely sister of the gunman he's after. Fortunately, the gangsters are played by people with some acting chops -- like J. Carroll Naish as the snarling mob boss and Joseph Sawyer as his most pugnacious thug. And even Jed Prouty is on hand as a doctor-for-hire.

Routine

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 21 January 2014]

Richard Dix plays a lawyer who represents criminals and is quite good at it. When his federal agent brother is killed by gangster J. Carrol Naish, Dix abandons his legal practice and goes undercover to bring down the criminals. But he needs to fall in love, right? Enter Naish's sister (Margaret Callahan). Routine little B crime drama. Dix is his usual square-jawed rugged self. Naish is good as always. Some solid character support from Joe Sawyer and Erik Rhodes. The love story part of the movie is probably the weakest. Seeing Dix flirt is like watching your grandfather breakdance. It's just wrong. It's an ordinary little crime flick. Nothing exceptional but something to pass an hour with.

The investigator may be special, but the story is ordinary.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 18 July 2019]

Every racketeer has their day, and that's what attorney Richard Dix wants for mobster J. Carroll Naish in this RKO programmer that has Dix switching sides, going from defending them to going out of his way to make them pay when his brother is killed for having dealings with them. This takes Dix to the country where he flirts with the mysterious Margaret Callahan who may or may not be Naish's sister.

Dix must establish himself among the locals, some of whom are aware of his true identity and assist him in his efforts to bring down Naish and his gang. The good thing is that Naish is recovering from an illness so his wits aren't as strong as normal. The bad news is that this programmer suffers from standard characterizations, little humor and slow pacing. Even Erik Rhodes, so good as sophisticated Europeans in musicals and comedies, gets a bland characters to play here, supported by Fuzzy Knight and Joe Sawyer. Only Sheila Terry offers any oomph as Naish's moll. It's run-of-the-mill and quickly forgettable.