Scene of the Crime (1949) User Reviews (35)

Above average police-procedural noir shows MGM's skittish touch

[bmacv · 7/10 · 29 December 2002]

An off-duty Los Angeles police detective is shot and killed one night with an unexplained thousand dollars found in his pocket. It falls to his former partner (Van Johnson) to track down his killers and try to exonerate him. Scene of the Crime, which tells the story, stays a police procedural with a few twists and touches that raise it a notch or two above the routine.

First of all, Johnson's wife (Arlene Dahl) has fallen prey to the dissatisfactions common to her lot. She's tired of their evenings, in and out, being ruined by yet another summons to duty (`Whenever the telephone rings, it cuts me,' she cries); she tired of rolling his dice rigged to come up seven, a ritual that supposedly bids him luck.

On the job, he has his burdens, too. His new partner (John McIntyre) is getting on in years and his sight is failing. And under Johnson's wing is nestled rookie cop Tom Drake, learning the ropes. Outside the office there's an abrasive police reporter (Donald Woods) chasing the corruption angle; there's also the network of low-lifes who serve, if the pressure is right, as stoolies - most vivid of them is the young Norman Lloyd.

Word filters up that the killing was the work of a couple of downstate `lobos' who have been knocking over bookie operations. Going undercover, Johnson starts romancing a stripper one of them used to date (Gloria De Haven, in the movie's sharpest performance). Even though he's working her, he finds his emotions in play - and even though it turns out that she's working him, too, she has no emotions.

Under Roy Rowland's direction, Scene of the Crime keeps its plotting straightforward, though with some uncharacteristic bursts of violence. The movie's studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was celebrated for its lavish color musicals, not for the unsentimental style of film noir. That probably accounts for the final shot's being a reconciliatory kiss, in hopes that such a sweet image might expunge all the urban squalor that went before it. Luckily, it doesn't.

A Cop Killing In Los Angeles

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 10 March 2009]

Van Johnson plays it a lot rougher than usual when cast as a hardboiled police detective in Scene Of The Crime. He's got reason to be hard in this case. A fellow detective has been murdered, shot down in the mean streets of Los Angeles. The victim had a thousand dollars in his pocket and may have been doing some off duty guard duty for some bookmakers. Which would make the cop and incidentally Van's friend a crooked cop.

Which among other things is what Captain Leon Ames wants Van to find out as well as bring in the killer. What Van and his squad uncover is a gang of crooks who are robbing these illegal gambling establishments, be they bookmaking parlors, dice games, poker games, whatever.

This case is the main concern of this film, but Johnson has a whole lot of other things on his plate. A partner, John McIntire, who is slowing up with age, a young detective Tom Drake who is learning the ropes as fast as Van can teach him, and his wife Arlene Dahl who would like very much for her husband to get out of the cop business.

Two other performances really stand out in this film. First Gloria DeHaven as singer/gangster girl friend who's definitely the most hardboiled character in the film. Her reasons for her actions tread into adult areas that the Code frowned on, but are still implied. Secondly Norman Lloyd you will not forget as one of Van's stool pigeons who might just be missing a whole suit in his deck of cards. Lloyd will definitely make your skin crawl.

Scene Of The Crime is a good cop drama, atypical for MGM at that time, but they would soon be doing more of these.

Scene of a Good Action Flick

[krorie · 7/10 · 27 July 2005]

This is a very entertaining look at big city cops and robbers with shades of film noir showing though. The standout performance in a potentially femme fatale role is Gloria DeHaven. I suspect the writers, John Bartlow Martin and Charles Schnee, along with director Roy Rowland, had experiences with untrustworthy women, for Lili (Gloria DeHaven) could turn any man's heart to putty, then fool him over and over. Van Johnson too turns in a subdued performance which is called for in the character (Mike Conovan) he plays. Conovan's very liberal wife, especially for 1949, is played by Arlene Dahl, who is fed up with the demands of her husband's job but who also trusts her husband to be with a vixen and still stay true to her. This is an effective counterbalance to the untrustworthiness of Lili. Great supporting roles abound filled with standout performances from John McIntire's "too old to cut the mustard" part all the way to the Sleeper, Norman Lloyd. Yuk, Yuk, it's great. There is a lot of realistic blood and guts thrown in complete with car chases that foretell things to come in action movies. Heat up some popcorn, get a cold one, then sit back and enjoy the ride.

Doesn't Gel

[dougdoepke · 18 March 2009]

I guess the lesson here is that you can take the crime drama out of MGM, but you can't take MGM out of the crime drama. With noirish location shots, the new Dore Schary regime changed the usual MGM look somewhat, yet the movie still boasts a string of stars and star power for which the studio was known. The trouble is that working Van Johnson, Arlene Dahl, Tom Drake, Gloria DeHaven, Donald Woods, and a string of "name" supporting players into the screenplay with sufficient screen time for each overstretches the results. Despite some effective moments (the hotel room fistfight, the fright screams from the burning car), the movie suffers from too much flab for overall effect. For example, the two rather lengthy scenes with Norrie Lorfield (Tom Helmore), the rival for Conovan's (Johnson) wife, are simply a needless distraction from the main plot, and work to dilute the overall effect. In fact, the entire marital subplot should have been dropped or at least minimized, but it seems that the studio was not satisfied with the kind of fast, efficient little crime drama that RKO, for one, routinely turned out.

I'm tempted to say that just as movie spectaculars and historical epics depend on big budgets for optimal effect, crime dramas and noirs depend on the tight disciplining constraints of small ones. That way, production values don't interfere with the story line. Here it appears that MGM's celebrated production values over-produced the number of feature players, which, in turn, multiplied the various subplots, or vice-versa. In either case, it's too bad the script didn't eliminate a few of these in favor of giving Norman Lloyd's truly memorable character, Sleeper, more screen time. He's the kind of unique character that could have transformed this otherwise forgettable exercise into a memorable one.

Routine cop drama...and which came first?

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 20 September 2006]

Did, as some people think, "Scene of the Crime" invent the cop drama clichés that have been a mainstay of television and film for so long? Or were they already established and just copied by this film? Not being an expert in the genre, I don't know. I do know that despite attempts by some people to elevate this movie to film noir status, it's not that great. Dore Schary put this into production when he took over MGM. I guess he wanted MGM to be more like Warner Brothers. It stars Van Johnson, Arlene Dahl, John McIntyre, Leon Ames, and Gloria DeHaven.

When a cop is killed with a roll of dough found on him, his fellow officers set out to investigate the crime and clear the man's name.

"Scene of the Crime" is similar in its way to "Dragnet" - it shows the daily grind of detectives as they put together a case. There are a couple of very good scenes, including one in which Mike (Van Johnson) arrests a suspect, and shooting starts when they get outside of the apartment building. Still handcuffed to Mike, the perp jumps into a building stairwell. There's also a good car chase.

For some reason, Van Johnson did these baby-faced tough guys well - perhaps it was his New York accent, but he pulls off the role of the dedicated Mike. He was set to be Elliot Ness in the TV "Untouchables" when his wife Evie called Desi Arnaz the night before and held him up for more money. Arnaz called Robert Stack and told him to report to the set the next day. A friend of mine who has lived in LA for over 50 years and socialized with many stars said that Arlene Dahl was the most beautiful woman of everyone he had met. Seeing her in this, you can believe it. She is a spectacular beauty if her acting in some spots isn't the best. Gloria De Haven, usually a vibrant ingenue, plays against type as a tramp, which makes it interesting.

"Scene of the Crime" is gritty-looking enough but suffers from being slow in spots and loaded with clichés. There isn't anything to make it truly special. That could be because by now, we've seen it all before. Perhaps in 1949, it was fresh. But I have my doubts that even back then, it broke any new ground.

Film noir with a superior script

[robert-temple-1 · 7/10 · 6 August 2017]

This is a very good film noir, well directed by Roy Rowland and with strong casting. It is based on a story called 'Smashing the Bookie Gang Marauders', which provided a run of the mill plot. But the strongest aspect of this film is its intelligent and witty screenplay by Charles Schnee. The film has many quick ripostes and lots of snappy dialogue. But unlike many such films, where gag writers have inserted the gags, there are no gags in this film, and instead Schnee has written his own text with plenty of quick zippy wit. One particularly good line is when Van Johnson says to floozy Gloria DeHaven: 'You know, when girls have your kind of looks, it's hard to see them.' That was because he had misread her character. Van Johnson is at his best as the stalwart cop in this detective tale. His beautiful wife is played by Arlene Dahl, to great effect. Gloria DeHaven is the gangster's moll, and she is some looker. She almost had me fooled too. All that soft soap concealing the hard steel underneath is enough to make any guy doubt the reliability of dames sometimes. The story concerns some wild thugs who are wiping out the bookies and killing people without compunction, in an attempt to 'take over'. The main murderer is a man with a twisted hand and a blotchy face. But no one can find him. It is interesting from the dialogue in the film that at that time tough guys did not say: 'Where is he holed up?' but merely: 'Where is he holed?' And another linguistic surprise is that Van Johnson talks of people spending time together as 'hanging', as in the phrase 'hanging out' used by young people today. I had no idea that people in 1949 were already talking about 'hanging' with each other. It all goes to show how important movies can be for one's historical education in the evolution of slang. In fact, there is no substitute for them. And that is yet another reason for watching old movies nonstop.

From 6¢ Candy To $6 Lunches--What's the Gag?

[davidcarniglia · 6/10 · 29 July 2018]

A nicely-woven plot and relentless pacing give Scene of the Crime an underlying noir flavor. But Van Johnson, as the detective Mike Conovan, turns in a nonchalant performance in the lead role, undercutting the gritty theme. Gloria DeHaven, as his sort-of girlfriend Lili, adds plenty of nuance and drama, but it's not quite enough to sustain the noir tone.

As many others have said, the annoying quips, one-liners, and slang just get in the way. So much of the dialogue backfires. Instead of being 40s hip, smooth, or cool, it seems forced, artificial. Once in a while it works; the black humor in Mike's comment after he's been roughed-up: "look at my eye!...Belongs on a bun with relish" is clever and genuine. But who would ever come up with "I ever zig you before?" as his wife tries to convince Mike that she's not kidding him. And there's lines like that in nearly every scene. It's almost as though all of the characters went to the same high school and were in rival cliques (cops v. criminals). All of the 'bad guys' have dumb nicknames, another juvenile touch.

Thankfully, the Mike/Lili relationship makes things interesting. They click immediately, but ultimately use each other. I was disappointed when Lili sold Mike out to Turk; both because she double-crossed him, and, sadly, because she still felt loyal to a sociopath. She seemed much better suited to Mike than Arlene Dahl's Gloria, who also undercuts him.

Lili is at most a lover to Mike, and has no history with him, but Gloria is his wife. Yet Gloria won't shake loose from her rich admirer, intriguing with him to wreck Mike's career. She feels she has the right to meddle in her husband's life because he doesn't do what she wants. By contrast, Lili automatically accepts him just as he is, knowing that they're on opposite sides of the law.

Lili's at the center of the plot, connecting Mike with Turk, the criminal who turns out to be the sought-after murderer. Turk's fake disfigurement is a great device that fools the viewer as well as the cops. The action scenes are quick and violent. Finding the informer stuck onto a lightpole is especially macabre, as it caps off what started as a routine incident. Mike's ramming the crime boss's car with the truck is a fitting climax, and very realistic. Another great bit happens in Mike's office. He repeatedly jabs his knife into pictures of the dead informant, raging against the at-large murderer while trying to break down a suspect.

Too many of the office scenes are hijacked by the loudmouth reporter with his obsessively snappy dialogue. His role makes sense as a 'wannabe' outsider; he's plainly excited by the mayhem surrounding the murders. Since he never has to deal with the messy reality of violence, he can maintain his pathetic staring-at-the-accident sense of detachment. But this irony would have a much greater impact if so many of the other characters didn't dip into the same verbal 'gee-whiz' mentality.

Zingers and puns can add a lot. Leads like Mitchum, Bogart, and Robert Ryan 'crack wise' very effectively in their better noir roles. But only kids use slang and jokes as much as the characters in Scene of the Crime.

DeHaven makes the most out of her character partly because her dialogue isn't laced with buzzwords. One goofy thing is the bizarre hat she puts on for the fancy restaurant date. But It's a good spoof of the era's styles, and the scene works because the humor's indirect. Except for a few scenes like this, Van Johnson never really makes enough out of his role to earn our sympathy.

A very watchable film down somewhat by an uneven tone. 6/10.

That scene ended up being nothing special.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 21 July 2020]

A bunch of contract players are cast against type in this MGM film noir obviously brought to the screen by Dory Schary without the approval of Louis B. Mayer who preferred the studio's films to be more family style entertainment. For the studios 25th anniversary, pretty much every a film was promised to be an event, and while this is good, it doesn't Meet the standards of most of the other films they released that year. Van Johnson, better known for lighter rolls, had been a hero in the war, but this was his first truly seriously Dark film. He's a cop investigating the murder of his partner, begged by wife Arlene Dahl to quit the force, but determined to find out what happened. This leads him to a nightclub singer played by Gloria De Haven who isn't as sweet as she seems on the surface and ultimately proves to be quite deadly.

This certainly ain't the good old summertime for Van Johnson on the streets of LA, that being a reference to the light-hearted musical he made that year with Judy Garland. Dahl and De Haven seem to be playing roles that were meant for the other, and that makes their characterizations quite interesting. One of several good elements in the film is that this does not sink the female roles to minor distractions. Tom Drake and Leon Ames, supporting players in the Garland musical "Meet Me In St Louis", add more elements of MGM's musical past.

These contract players are surrounded by a bunch of strange street characters that seem like they were part of characters that Schary had in mind when he work at RKO and are out of step with MGM's straight on the line decent all Americans. The film gets shockingly violent at times, and that will jolt bored viewers awake when the film starts to get slow. Location footage also helps get D MGM photography unit out onto the streets And that gives it a unique look. Special credit must go to Caleb Peterson as the shoe shiner, breaking away from stereotypes and giving a nice performance in his one scene. Fans of the MGM musical "Till the Clouds Roll By" will remember him for his rendition of "Ol Man River". Overall, this is a nice try for MGM to outstep its usual type of film even though it would take a few more tries before they had a classic in the genre with "The Asphalt Jungle".

LA detective Van Johnson

[RanchoTuVu · 8/10 · 21 January 2010]

An LA police detective (Van Johnson) investigates the murder of another detective and gets involved with night club singer and stripper played by Gloria De Haven. The story has a neat double cross. A criminal organization from "down south" sends a couple of "lobos" to LA in order to take over a bookmaking syndicate. Corruption is at the center of the story as the dead detective was carrying a wad of cash. Johnson's out to prove that he (dead detective) wasn't on the take. His street contact Sleepy (Norman Lloyd) provides some of the films more vivid moments, and Jerome Cowan (Sam Spade's partner in Maltese Falcon) has a great part as "fixer" Arthur Webson. Johnson does very well in the part, combining breeziness that he honed in earlier films with sufficient grit to be believable as a tough detective. His wife played by Arlene Dahl looks great and they share some pretty good chemistry in their scenes. The film does a good job of capturing the story's different elements and cohesively combining them. The action doesn't always come, but when it does it is surprisingly sudden and brutal for the times.

From the nitty-gritty side of M-G-M...compact and well-written

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 18 January 2010]

Two veteran Los Angeles police detectives and a well-meaning rookie set out to find the killer of an off-duty fellow officer who may have been on the take. This is an L.A. filled with dangerous broads, bookie joints, ex-bootleggers in on a new racket, and cops in natty suits and broad-billed hats. The pulpy, slangy dialogue is fun at times, as are the performances from Van Johnson and Gloria DeHaven (playing a chanteuse "with a figure like champagne and a heart like the cork"). Other, later crime-dramas would quickly up the ante on such a scenario, but this one is a fine example of the compact policer. M-G-M was downsizing their budgets at the time and trying their hand at different types of films--which provided the perfect opportunity for matinée idols like Johnson to stretch their acting muscles. The results here are not exactly noir, but more from an overtly-ordinary, overtly-jaded mold, with everyday people going about their business and getting the job done. If it isn't exciting, at least it's highly competent. **1/2 from ****

Dore Schary's crime against MGM... and humanity

[crispy_comments · 4/10 · 24 April 2006]

Okay, now I know where all those boring cop/homicide TV shows came from. I do believe they can be traced back to this movie. "Scene Of The Crime" feels more like a TV episode, or an episode of a serial. Complete with stock characters and situations - the hotshot cop who clashes with his superiors... the aging cop who doesn't want a desk job, despite failing eyesight... the reckless rookie... the double-crossing dame, etc.

I like many of the actors here, and they do a good job, but overall I found this movie dull as I'm not a fan of the genre. I kept tuning out when they were discussing the case ...something about bookies and informers. And oh yeah, there was a stripper, played by the previously wholesome Gloria DeHaven. What I want to know is: Why did she keep calling Van Johnson "Uncle Wiggly"? Wasn't Uncle Wiggly a rabbit? A character from a children's book? What the heck does that have to do with anything? I guess I just don't get tough-guy Film Noir-ish kinda jargon.

In fact, much of the dialogue made me mutter "nobody talks like that!" However, I could relate to one scene where the cop's wife (Arlene Dahl), who worries every time he goes to work, realizes that maybe she shouldn't have made her husband the center of her life. Yeah, I know that feeling of loving someone so much, being so dependent on them, that there's a constant fear for their safety. So there are moments of truth in this film, underneath the stylized dialogue and atmosphere which is trying so self-consciously to be gritty and REAL, that it actually seems unreal to me.

A little background: this movie was made when Dore Schary took over MGM from Louis B. Mayer, and began to put an end to the wholesome musicals that made MGM so great. Dore Schary was determined to bring more "realism" to movies. I kinda hate Dore Schary. Maybe we can blame him for all the pretentious, bleak movies being made today, wallowing in the ugly "truths" about life, focusing on (and, in my opinion, helping to perpetuate) the worst of humanity rather than the best. No longer uplifting us the way classic movies were designed to do - providing a necessary distraction during the Great Depression and World War II.

Well, damn it, we still need that kind of distraction today! There's still plenty of depression and plenty of war. And what are people turning to nowadays when they want to escape? Trashy, brain-deadening Reality TV. Thanks a lot, Dore!

I know you know I know you know something!

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 11 July 2015]

Scene of the Crime is directed by Roy Rowland and adapted to screenplay by Charles Schnee from the story " Smashing the Bookie Gang Members" written by John Bartlow Martin. It stars Van Johnson, Arlene Dahl, Gloria DeHaven, Tom Drake, John McIntire and Leon Ames. Music is by André Previn and cinematography by Paul Vogel.

When a fellow detective is gunned down in suspicious circumstances, Mike Conovan (Johnson) decided to dig a little deeper...

Only fools bet horses - fools keep me prosperous.

A rough and tough noir piece this one. It finds MGM jumping onto the noir bandwagon and putting golden boy Van Johnson forward as a hardboiled hero, and it works. In essence it's about a cop who is disillusioned with his job and faces static at home from his lovingly concerned wife (Dahl). Circumstance drags him into the fray, thus risking everything in life he holds dear, but hell bent on cracking the case and bringing to justice crooks and killers, he ploughs right on in to the frying pan.

Yuk Yuk Yuk.

Pic is in keeping with the Dragnet type of cop films that were so productive in the era. So we get plenty of dry conversations and verbal jousting, splendidly scripted by Schneee who gives thought to the various characterisations. Violence is never far away to add an edge to the standard plotting, while it's sexy and romantic in equal measure - poor Johnson has an adoring Dahl waiting at home for him, while sultry stripper Lili (DeHaven) is all over him when he goes incognito on the case.

Dead Pigeon.

Characters all have solitary nicknames, such as Piper (McIntire ace with a tongue as sharp as a knife), Sleeper, CC, Turk and Hippo. There's Bogart references to keep you tuned into the world the pic is operating out of, and the black and white photography, though short on thematic chiaroscuro, keeps the hardboiled atmosphere on the high heat. Cast are uniformly on song, delivering the spiky dialogue with a rich dryness beloved by fans of such fare, and the mystery element has a strong enough current to pull you in for the finale. Good stuff for the discerning fans. 8/10

Scene of the Crime (1949)

[MartinTeller · 7/10 · 3 January 2012]

MGM is not a studio known for noir. This procedural is toothless and insincere, with a plot that's barely worth paying attention to (something about a dead cop and bookies, I dunno). Van Johnson in the lead comes up short, he doesn't handle the hard-boiled lingo very well. But some of the accoutrements are pretty hot stuff. This is my third Roy Rowland (fourth if you count his "Crime Does Not Pay" short) and as he proved in ROGUE COP and WITNESS TO MURDER he definitely has a good track record with the genre. The photography is excellent (though some of the sets look pretty cheap), the dialogue crackles, there's some nice touches like the diegetic music during a big fight scene, and the film has some awesome supporting performances. Norman Lloyd (so great), Gloria DeHaven ("A figure like champagne and a heart like the cork"), and Robert Gist really shine, and John McIntyre is always terrific. There's a lot to love in this movie and at first I was thrilled to be watching it. After a while, however, the ho-hum story becomes harder to care about. I really wanted to like this more, but despite its flaws there's definitely some worthwhile elements.

Dud Noir

[evanston_dad · 4/10 · 7 October 2020]

Is it just me, or is this dud noir from 1949 ridiculously hard to follow.

In fairness, I was watching this when I was a little sleepy, so I might not have been paying close attention. Also in fairness, many noirs are difficult to follow; you don't really watch them for the plot as much as to soak up the atmosphere. But "Scene of the Crime" doesn't have any atmosphere, so there isn't anything to make up for the convoluted story.

A car explodes at one point, so at least there's that.....

Grade: C-

Noir Clichés

[GManfred · 7 September 2016]

They're all here. Lovelorn wife, old cop trying to stick around, gangsters with neat nicknames, forensic lab work, stool pigeons, etc. There is also an uninteresting back story about a job the wife is trying to get for her husband-cop, to "keep him safe". Think of a familiar plot device and it's here in "Scene Of The Crime".

That said, this picture holds your interest - it's a good story, when all is said and done. Good acting from start to finish and there are lots of good character actors; John McIntyre, Norman Lloyd, Gloria DeHaven, Jerome Cowan, and many others. I disagree with a reviewer above in that the picture held my interest right to the end, although I am a big fan of noir films. I did think that Van Johnson was a curious choice for the title role. I always thought there wasn't a mean bone in his body, not tough enough to play a detective in a gritty noir.

Lastly, the music director was Andre Previn, and the theme music at the beginning and end was good. He also wrote two songs that were unworthy of him, but they were played in a strip joint and fit into the setting with their trite tunes and lyrics. Despite all of the preceding, I rated it a seven, which means I think it's worth your time.

Where was Jack Webb?

[aimless-46 · 6/10 · 7 May 2006]

Generally entertaining film noir detective film, not private eyes but "Dragnet" like plainclothes police. The Sgt. Friday character is Lieutenant Mike Conovan (Van Johnson) who leads a very complicated life, simultaneously trying to solve the murder of an off-duty police detective while breaking in rookie detective C.C. Gordon (Tom Drake). Despite all this he still has time to listen to his wife Gloria (Arlene Dahl) whine about his job and to have a tame in the line of duty fling with sexy Lili (Gloria de Haven).

The rookie detective character is basically just a excuse to throw a lot of late 40's police jargon into the script and to showcase "Dragnet" style back room police activities. Otherwise the story is nicely paced although little suspense is generated because everything is shown from the point of view of Conovan. So little is revealed about the other characters that the resolution is rather unsatisfying.

"Scene of the Crime" was a transitional film as the genre moved from gangsters and private eyes to actual police departments. The police are portrayed in a very sympathetic light; contending with low pay, disillusionment, pressures from home, and a feeling of not being appreciated.

Although Van Johnson does a decent job in the lead role, he was a poor choice (from both a physical and a acting style perspective) for the role of a cynical and conflicted tough cop. Johnson is much better suited to nice guy roles. Dahl soon gets on your nerves but you never tire of de Haven's Lili.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

scene of the crime

[mossgrymk · 6/10 · 4 March 2022]

File this one under "Standard police procedural slash noir". Cinematography and direction needed to be much moodier and LA location shooting, which is such an essential ingredient of this genre, was uninspired. However, my biggest problem with this film lies with the screenplay by Casey Robinson, of "Dark Victory" and "Now Voyager" fame. Perhaps in an effort to show that he was more than just Bette Davis' favorite chick flic scribe and could handle the world weary, sardonic demands of noir writing he goes overboard with his dialogue, giving all the main characters and several of the minor ones copious amounts of quips, wisecracks, put downs and zingers. And while many of his lines are amusing and a few even interestingly quirky the dialogue tends to smother the movie, taking away from tension and draining it of drama. If it weren't for good acting, pretty much up and down the cast, and especially from Gloria DeHaven, John McIntyre and ageless Norman Lloyd (you know I know you know this guy was a delight into his hundreds) this film would be utter dreck. C plus.

Life's pretty gritty in the city

[kalbimassey · 7/10 · 23 March 2023]

Detective Van Johnson's romantic evening out with wife Arlene Dahl is over before it's begun, when a harrowing telephone call informs him that former partner Monigan has lit his pipe for the last time, prior to being gunned down outside an illegal bookies, with $1000 in his pocket.

Accompanied by short sighted veteran, John McIntire and rookie, Tom Drake, Johnson is left to investigate a murder case tainted by allegations of police corruption. All except wacky informant, Norman Lloyd close ranks and a prolonged, arduous manhunt lies ahead.

With Arlene Dahl quaking in her high heels every time Johnson packs a rod and hits the streets, gripped by the possibility that the next time she sees him, he might be lying on a slab, the movie embarks upon a parallel route into the realms of domestic drama seen from Dahl's vantage point, illustrating the emotionally draining experience of being a cop's wife. Such is her devotion, that returning home in the small hours, with lipstick on his collar, after a 'romantic' encounter with gangster's moll and prize trollop Gloria De Haven, draws the polar opposite response to the Connie Francis treatment.

Serious soul searching starts, however, with the reappearance of ex lover, suave, debonair Tom Helmore, still carrying a torch of colossal proportions. Dahl is suddenly, painfully alerted to the safe, secure, stable and extremely prosperous life that she might have had.

'Scene of the Crime' is not a classic film noir, but as it steams along its flinty course towards the tensely violent finale, it successfully paints a contrasting picture between Johnson's unglamorous world of crime'n'grime and Dahl's no less sacrificial, contemplative, disquieting perspective on marriage to a high ranking police officer.

Glossy Film Noir

[boblipton · 6/10 · 11 February 2022]

Van Johnson is an honest Los Angeles cop whose partner is murdered by the Syndicate. The whole LAPD, which seems to consist of about nine guys, wants the murders found, but nagging wife Arlene Dahl wants Johnson to quit so they can have a baby, and stripper Gloria DeHaven offers some alluring comfort.

With Dore Schary at MGM, trying to make movies on lower budget, you still had the problem that MGM's people wanted to apply gloss to everything. Furthermore, while it might do to show that stars could perform more than their signature sorts of roles, people didn't come to the theater to see them for their versatility. They liked to see them in the sort of pictures they liked seeing them in. No one was terribly interested in seeing if Van Johnson could be the next Humphrey Bogart (or as they call him here, "Humpty Bogart").

So this modestly budgeted -- by MGM standards, anyway -- programmer showed a decent profit, and why not? It's a pretty good mystery, with some decent performances, even if the sequence in which Johnson beats up a thug while the radio plays jazz loudly seems over the top. By the end Paul Vogel had figured out how to shoot some noir lighting effects, and there is a happy ending. Just like in all film noir. Isn't that what people want?

***

[edwagreen · 8/10 · 26 August 2016]

Rather routine but interesting fanfare showcasing Van Johnson as a detective in hot pursuit of a policeman's killer and on the body, money was found to make it appear that the dead officer was on the take. The part where the dead officer's son sold his gun for $80.00 to the crooks was somewhat difficult to believe.

Arlene Dahl plays Johnson's loving wife who begins to question their marriage as the Johnson character becomes obsessed with finding the killer. Real acting kudos must go here to Gloria De Haven, a moll who appears kind and you wonder how she got mixed up with such hoods. Her real persona shows by film's end as she is nothing more than a vicious broad whose complicity led to the death of several people.

John McIntire represents the aging cop who refuses to retire due to failing eyesight. He literally goes out with a bang. Donald Woods briefly appears as a news reporter ready to write down any tidbit possible. Even in 1949, we are faced with low wages, lack of respect and a media ready to jump on the police even if one of them is a rotten apple.

Tepid crime drama despite occasional bursts of violence...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 11 March 2009]

SCENE OF THE CRIME has a miscast VAN JOHNSON as a tough L.A. cop assigned to find out who killed his partner on the beat. The mild-mannered Johnson manages to do a capable enough job but he's clearly miscast in the role and seems to know it.

Equally miscast is GLORIA DeHAVEN as Lilli, a tramp nightclub singer, but she manages to cope with her role in a better than average way. ARLENE DAHL is beautiful as Van's increasingly bitter wife who wishes he had the kind of job that wouldn't need her to pray for his safety every time the phone rings.

It's obvious that James Ellroy never got his inspiration for LA. CONFIDENTIAL from this tepid MGM crime thriller. There's only an occasional burst of violence to remind viewers they're watching a police drama and one of the killings is effectively done in a startling way. But the characters are no more than pawns in a story that moves at a snail's pace and never rises above its crime story clichés.

MGM must have been looking for a "new look", so they gave this one a gritty enough atmosphere of city streets at night and filled the cast with some convincing supporting players, particularly NORMAN LLOYD with his "Yuk, yuk" routine as a slightly crazy and sleazy suspect. TOM DRAKE is ill used as a rookie cop, but DONALD WOODS is surprisingly effective as a cynical journalist who writes about crooked cops.

Not memorable, it's the kind of film you see once and then promptly forget within a short passage of time. Nice try but it fails to deliver the required punch.

Precursor of 50s TV Crime shows lacks suspense and overloaded with a surfeit of dialogue

[Turfseer · 4/10 · 15 February 2022]

It's difficult understanding why a good number of internet posters find Scene of a Crime to be that worthwhile. Touted as a harbinger of soon to come 1950s TV police procedurals (Dragnet for example), the film has the dubious distinction of serving as the template for these bland narratives in which quirky but stalwart officers take down a coterie of unpleasant bad guys.

Van Johnson (usually known for light comic fare) is tasked with playing the hard-edged detective Mike Conovan who is assigned to investigate the murder of a fellow detective Monigan, found with $1,000 in cash stuffed in his pocket after being killed by a gangster. He's assisted by fellow cop Fred Piper (John McIntire) who is eventually found out to have deteriorating eyesight and faces the prospect of being reassigned to "desk duty." A rookie investigator, CC Gordan (Tom Drake)-the "CC" standing for "carbon copy" as in carbon copy of his immediate superior Conovan--rounds out the trio.

The script is filled with a surfeit of dialogue as the intrepid detectives go around interviewing various bad guys. The most interesting among them is Sleeper (played by the ubiquitous Norman Lloyd who only recently passed away at the ripe old age of 107).

Sleeper is about to rat out those responsible for murdering Monigan but meets a grisly end hanging from streetlamp pole (when Conovan and associates find a matchbook with the names Turk Kingby (Richard Benedict) and Lafe Douque (William Haade) belonging to Sleeper, they get their first solid lead possibly connecting these thugs with the Monigan murder).

Occasionally we're privy to a few action sequences in which Conovan has a fistfight with one of the bad guys and is almost machine-gunned to death by the gangsters in a passing car (the baddies do manage to kill Lafe while he's handcuffed to Conovan who's bringing him in for processing).

Of the two women involved here in the narrative, it's nightclub singer Lili played by Glorida DeHaven who turns out to be the femme fatale of the piece. She eventually double crosses Conovan who initially believed she was helping him. Then there's Conovan's wife, Gloria (Arlene Dahl) who takes up screen time in a pedestrian subplot in which she needs time on her own, disillusioned with her husband continuing to work in such a dangerous profession.

I suppose the climax is the best part of the film in which the bad guys get their comeuppance. It's Turk who confesses to Monigan's murder and clears him of corruption while on his deathbed in the hospital after being shot in a hail of police gunfire.

Van Johnson tries hard at acting as a hard-boiled cop and doesn't quite pull it off. Dahl and DeHaven are fine in the supporting female roles along with the rest of the cast despite being saddled with too much dialogue at the expense of the action.

Scene of the Crime never takes off as its moments of suspense are few and far between.

A cop gets killed, but there will be more...

[clanciai · 9/10 · 7 September 2021]

This film is worth watching primarily for its excellent dialog, which has to keep you alert from beginning to end, for actually everything happens in the dialog. There are gangsters and murders, of course, some false woman, many night club sleazy scenes, and Van Johnson trying to sort things out of an impossible mess which keeps him worried, but his wife even more. The actual story of the film is the conflict between a cop's job and his wife's reasonable efforts to try to keep him out of it, which efforts constantly fail since his job keeps dragging him down into it, especially since one of his colleagues after the other are getting murdered. It's a complicated plot, it is as difficult for the viewer to figure out the muddle as it is for Van Johnson, but it all makes sense and reaches a logical conclusion. It is a virtuoso crime film noir with cops and killers, and there are some great dramatic highlights. The music, which is interesting to note, is actually by Andre Previn when he was still very fresh and young in Hollywood..

Criminal grit

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 14 April 2020]

Really liked the premise for 'Scene of the Crime'. The title was appetising and immediately made me want to see it, with crime thriller like films being right up my alley. Andre Previn penned some interesting scores, though he is more the appreciate rather than love film composers (know him better as a conductor though). The cast, with the likes of Van Johnson, Arlene Dahl and Gloria DeHaven, intrigued, but there was the worry as to whether Johnson would be right for his role.

Those reservations sadly did prove to be correct in my view. Although 'Scene of the Crime' itself as an overall film was not bad at all, personally felt it was above average. Am not going to say that 'Scene of the Crime' was a great or flawless film, because it wasn't really on either count and there is not a lot that is awfully special here. It is mostly well put together and very competently done, so it is definitely more than watchable.

'Scene of the Crime' has suitably gritty photography, it's capably directed generally and the score from Previn is ominous. Enough of the dialogue crackles, plenty of snap and intensity. The story has some great moments, mentioned in previous comments, and is at its best when the film gets particularly gritty and pulls no punches.

Most of the performances are good. DeHaven has one of the more interesting characters and brings sultriness and edge to her. Dahl is also radiant and plays her part with steel and heart. Norman Lloyd makes for an entertaining sleaze.

Less successful sadly is a miscast Johnson. The role needed a lot more intensity and hard boiled edge than what Johnson actually gave, which was mostly stone-faced and ill-at-ease. Donald Woods does what he can with his character, though can overplay, but the character is overused and can come over as irritating.

Other parts of the dialogue were very clumsy and unrealistically anachronistic. The story sometimes felt padded as well as pretty routine, from going too far on familiar cliches done little new with, and obvious.

Concluding, very watchable but it didn't have the wow factor, which it would have had with more suspense and a more suitable leading man. 6/10

The Big Sleeper

[cutterccbaxter · 24 April 2006]

Sleeper was my favorite character in this film. They shouldn't have knocked him off. He was worth lots of yuks and had the best dialog. I must confess I did doze off just before Van resigned from the force, so maybe I'm a little partial to the character of Sleeper.

When Van was having his shoes shined and seeking info from the shoe shine guy I almost expected Leslie Nielsen to wander into the scene. It was straight out of Police Squad.

Scene Of The Crime thrived at getting in every cop movie cliché. Many elements weren't even established clichés yet, but it was like the movie had an instinctive sense of what would become a cliché.