Into the Net

This is a very interesting film (or series of films) because of the prominence it gives - unusual this early - to the police operational aspects that would become hugely important in crime films of the forties and fifties. It even begins, unusually for a silent, with a first-person titlecard (I was......) and, although the first-person narrative is not exactly continued - it is presumably the detective Bob Moore who i supposed to be speaking - the narrative remains snappy in the fashion of the hard-nosed crime novel. Towards the end the story becomes a bit "Fu Manchu" but in the early episodes it maintains a relatively realistic style.

And there is a very good reason for all this. The writer of the original story, sometimes given as Inside the Net but this may be an error, was Richard E. Enright who, at the time of writing and at the time when the film came out, both seemingly in 1924, was Commissioner of the New York Police, a post he had held (a record period at the time) since 1918. He was rather an admirable policeman, the first Commissioner to have risen up through the ranks - he joined the force in 1896 - an erudite man, a supporter of unions (a fact which delayed his promotion) who was popular with his men and a stalwart opponent of police corruption.

Enright advocated a scientific approach to police-work, writing an article on the subject for Popular Science Monthly in 1923. He was also an advocate of universal fingerprinting (article in Scientific American 1925), so it is no surprise that fingerprinting plays a important part in the film and that the process associated with it is shown with great care. He was also strongly supportive of the detective component of the police-force and was the founder of the YPD's detective training school.

He served as Commissioner during the time of Prohibition and was known for his crack-down on illegal gambling (also featured in the film as part of the white slave trade/blackmail racket run by the gang. He resigned in 1925 over the support from politicians for the corrupt policeman who would not enforce the Volstead Act. He wrote at least one other detective story after his department but otherwise lived a quite life until his decease in 1953.

This is a pretty poorly acted movie: leading men Jack Mulhall and Bert Moore bring little energy or expression to their roles, although Mulhall does beat up a couple of bad 'uns towards the end of this movie about kidnapped heiresses and what happens to them. The villains don't get to act much either, although the two heroines -- Edna Murphy and Constance Bennett -- do a little better.

The best part of this New-York shot movie is the exteriors. You get a chance to see a large swath of Manhatan, and a goodly chunk of it is still recognizable, although altered: Times Square looks great and I wouldn't mind a chance to examine a few frames and see exactly what Mary Pickford movie is playing -- probably DOROTHY VERNON OF HADDON HALL.

One piece of advice, though; if you're driving from 63rd and Central Park West to the Brooklyn Bridge via Broadway, don't switch to 5th Avenue at Madison Square. Washington Square Park will slow you way down.