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GEORGE BRENT doesn't display much enthusiasm for his role as a police detective who finds that his ex-sweetheart (MARGARET LINDSAY) is the chief suspect in the murder of a wealthy playboy. There are several suspects under police grilling and all of them tell their stories in brisk flashback technique that keeps the plot spinning in all directions so that all options are on the table in guessing "who done it." It's a ploy that doesn't work well here. A more straight-forward approach would have worked better in keeping the plot from getting too cluttered. By the time we reach a conclusion, the viewer is left hoping the story is over once and for all. What does work is showing the behind-the-scenes methods the crime labs perform in solving a case.

It's a programmer given what little life it has by a capable cast of Warner supporting players including Ken Murray, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dorothy Burgess, Eugene Palette, Theodore Newton and others and benefits from brisk direction by William Dieterle.

Summing up: A more polished script would have helped and George Brent seems too detached on this occasion to make much of his detective role.

When a Broadway playboy is found dead, it's first thought to be a suicide, then a murder. Police Lt. Jim Stevens (George Brent) is on the case.

Lou Winton (Margaret Lindsay), a Broadway performer with whom he's in love, is one suspect, but he's sure she didn't do it. It's obvious from her first questioning that she's protecting someone. It turns out to be her brother.

Then there's a coke addict, Dolly White (Dorothy Burgess). And what about Anderzian (Robert Barrat)?

This mystery moves right along, and is more interesting than many of these films due to the use of actual police techniques from those days - examining a bullet, getting fingerprints, and my favorite, the use of IBM punch cards and a sorting machine to search a database. This may be the first display of that technology in film.

Not only interesting, but fun to see, and also to note that those techniques in one form or another continue to be used.

George Brent is handsomer, I think, without his mustache, and does a good job here as an intelligent inspector.

Hugh Herbert is on hand as a bail bondsman, and Frank McHugh is on very quickly at the beginning.

This is an old one!

See if it is on TCM - you'll enjoy it.

There are two cases being investigated here. One is a safe cracking case, and the other the murder of a wealthy playboy that was initially thought to be suicide. These two cases coincide.

In the first case the suspects are narrowed down by entering criteria into what passed for a primitive computer - without semiconductors. The murder case is more complex. The police start with the playboy's fiancee, Lou Winton (Margaret Lindsay), and there just get to be more and more suspects from there. The complicating factor is that Lou was homicide detective Stevens' (George Brent's) girlfriend before she was the playboy's fiancee.

Fingerprint technology, ballistics, autopsies, and blood testing are all mentioned. And like any WB film of the era there is an interesting cast of supporting characters running around - Hugh Herbert as an overenthusiastic bail bondsman, Ken Murray as an obnoxious crime reporter, Edward Ellis as a medical examiner who loves his work, and Dorothy Burgess as a crazy woman - she did that kind of role so well.

Eugene Pallette is in one of his less cuddly roles as Sgt. Boggs who seems to want arrest everybody for the murder. And you get to see something I don't think I've seen before in a 30s film - the police switchboard employs entirely male operators. At a little more than an hour it doesn't wear out its welcome, and I recommend it.

FROM HEADQUARTERS (1933) is a very interesting movie about a police investigation into a murder. The action takes place entirely within police headquarters, as cops interview suspects and scientists analyze evidence.

The movie is short and sweet (just over one hour long), filled with an entertaining cast of characters (ranging from policemen to news reporters to bail bondsmen), and quite enjoyable. It offers a fascinating look into the cutting-edge forensics of the day (how science was used to solve crimes). The movie shows how fingerprints are obtained and matched up. It mentions blood testing and autopsies. And there's a neat look at ballistic analysis (comparing marks on fired bullets).

George Brent, Eugene Palette, and Henry O'Neill play the police investigating a murder case. They parade in a string of the dead man's associates and each offers their piece to the puzzle of what turns out to be a very eventful night for the deceased. Each successive suspect's story is shown in a short point-of-view flashback, picking up where the last witness left off. The "whodunit" aspect is a little convoluted, but as the day goes on, developments in the lab shed new light on the case.

Edward Ellis (THE THIN MAN) plays the lead scientist, who relishes each breakthrough in the "lovely murder". It seems like Warner Bros. wanted to show theatergoers some of the cool new forensic strategies and technologies, and even though science has come a long way since 1933, it's still an interesting look back in history.

FROM HEADQUARTERS is not a top-shelf murder mystery or police procedural, but it's quick and fun, with some racy pre-Code material, a lighthearted sense of the macabre, and a unique historical value.

Directed by William Dieterle (THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR - 1936, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME - 1939) and also featuring Hugh Herbert, Robert Barrat, and the lovely Margaret Lindsay.

6+/10

I imagine that this 1933 Warner Brothers offering is among the first, if not THE first, of the police procedurals. Alas, it is not one of the better ones. Saddled with an extremely dull murder mystery (kind of like Agatha Christie on Darvon) director William Dieterle overcompensates with florid direction that results in hammy performances from usually good actors like George Brent, Eugene Pallette and Margaret Lindsay. And the members of the forensics unit act like The Hardy Boys meet Mad Scientists. However, for being a pioneer entry in a most worthy genre let's give this one a generous C plus.