This little "film noir" seems to have it's mind on witty dialog rather than sensible plot line. George Raft plays a junior partner Detective who sees murder when his partner lazily sees suicide. He pursues the case, because it haunts him, but are never told why. He focuses in on one woman, who, as in most of these kinds of movie, is meant to make us wonder whether she's evil or innocent. Of course he falls for her, but being Dudley Do Right, the "case must be solved." SPOILER. Plot problems. For example our intrepid Det. manages to track down 9 women in 2 days, with only a photograph and no first or last names! The answer is revealed later in the movie but in the wrong time line: He finds the women, then we see him finding the photographer's studio name on the photograph.
We keep being told that the method of making the murder look like suicide is "mysterious" when any kid could figure an obvious way immediately (shoot the guy close up and wrap his fingers around gun). The method when it is revealed is interesting but as another obvious way is already there it doesn't come as a "aha!" moment.
When an obvious suspect is revealed by her facial expression when the "Nocturne" is played, the audience sees it right away but our dufus Det. doesn't. So now the audience knows and watches dufus wander around looking for the wrong suspect. Was this deliberate?
A main character is a big hulk that follows Raft around for most of the day, and it takes that long for Raft to see him, when the audience has him pegged right away. It is never explained why he does what he does, other than that he is a sidekick to the eventually revealed killer. SPOILER END
Raft is his usual wooden self, and he has a nice way with lines. He lives with his mother in an interesting side story that could have been used to tell us more about why Raft's character is so close to the edge.
We keep being told that the method of making the murder look like suicide is "mysterious" when any kid could figure an obvious way immediately (shoot the guy close up and wrap his fingers around gun). The method when it is revealed is interesting but as another obvious way is already there it doesn't come as a "aha!" moment.
When an obvious suspect is revealed by her facial expression when the "Nocturne" is played, the audience sees it right away but our dufus Det. doesn't. So now the audience knows and watches dufus wander around looking for the wrong suspect. Was this deliberate?
A main character is a big hulk that follows Raft around for most of the day, and it takes that long for Raft to see him, when the audience has him pegged right away. It is never explained why he does what he does, other than that he is a sidekick to the eventually revealed killer. SPOILER END
Raft is his usual wooden self, and he has a nice way with lines. He lives with his mother in an interesting side story that could have been used to tell us more about why Raft's character is so close to the edge.