From Headquarters

In the 1930s, detective and crime stories were a dime a dozen. Very few of them were about realism but about entertaining the audiences. Because of this, there were a lot of clichés you could expect in a film about murder....such as the cops being idiots, the bad guy confessing to everything at the end of the film even though the good guys could not prove they did it and police procedures were practically non-existent...they just kept arresting the wrong people until they got the right one!! The films don't age well because of all this and there is a serious sameness to them. Fortunately, among these many cliché-ridden stories is one like "From Headquarters"!

The film begins with a murder. Non-stupid detectives begin investigating and you follow the case from start to finish. You see them taking fingerprints, searching files and early computer systems and questioning various witnesses. While the guy played by Eugene Palette is a bit like the dopey detectives (in fact, this same actor played dopey detectives in several films), he's not over the top and is competent. His boss (George Brent) is quite competent and clever...like you'd hope a detective would be.

The bottom line is that this film is extremely well written, has much better than usual acting and has aged very well. The actors seem more realistic and less like archetypes in this one. Plus, it is fascinating seeing how thing have and haven't changed over the last 80 or so years. Well worth seeing.

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.

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.

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

From Headquarters is a rather contrived and convoluted murder mystery but its brisk running time of 64 minutes and economic cross cut editing give the film more of a vitality than one would expect with the stolid George Brent in the lead. Clichés abound but a gallows humor among the precinct set nullifies them much of the time as the cops turn the screws on the suspects and the supporting cast steals most of the film.

It's another day down at headquarters of processing common criminals and chasing leads while reporters slovenly lie about waiting for a big story which comes in the way of the murder of a lecherous, blackmailer. Detectives Stevens (Brent) and Boggs (Eugene Palette) are given the case but approach it differently. Forensics meanwhile jumps into high gear gathering evidence through devious means and the killer as well as the victim remains in doubt until the final moments.

With the exception of the retiring Brent From Headquarters entire cast plays it broad and over the top. Margaret Lindsay's suspect and also the ex of Steven's divides her time between being stilted and hysterical while Palette's Sgt. Boggs spends the entire film lunging like a mad bulldog at all the suspects. In the same respect Hugh Herbert's overzealous bail bondsman, Robert Barrat's unctuous rug dealer and Edward Ellis's dark humored pathologist fit well into the spirit of the film.

Director William Dieterle and cameraman William Rees provide a decent look and rhythm to From Headquarters most of the way evoking in moments comparison to His Girl Friday and The Detective Story but its incredulous story line can only elevate it at best to a decent Charlie Chan.