When a police officer is shot and killed after apprehending a suspect in a car theft, all hell breaks loose in the Los Angeles police department. Commander Edward G. Robinson is hellbent on apprehending the killer, and finds that the one key witness (Porter Hall) won't talk. He is under the advisement of his attorney to keep his mouth shut, but it is clear to Robinson that Hall is hiding something. That something is a blonde mistress which the portly Hall fears that a revelation of will end up being revealed to his unseen wife. In the meantime, Robinson also utilizes a local madam (Paulette Goddard) for clues as to the identity of the people involved in this case, while also investigating the claim of an aging conman that a Beverly Hills bank is about to be held up.
Poor Hall can't get a break. When his shady lawyer gets him off on a rift, Robinson has him accused of being a masher. Later, he's a public drunk, and more charges follow suit in Robinson's efforts to keep Hall detained. He knows that once Hall and his mistress (Joan Vohs) come upon each other, he'll get Hall to co-operate, and the way he goes about this is very clever. There's a very amusing sequence with Vohs, a fur model, being escorted away from work after modeling a fur for a client where the law-abiding police officer grabs the stoll off of her to hand back to the department store supervisor. Another amusing sequence has Goddard (basically underused but amusing in her few scenes) being taken in by the police while interviewing a "client". She has a very amusing exchange with Robinson in regards to "pick-ups", and you can see that Robinson, the victim in this wisecrack, is very amused by it.
Yet, as light-hearted as Robinson's character is, he ain't no sap, and when he does come across the man he believes to be the cop killer, he leaves no detail unexposed as he reveals what will happen to any cop killer as they head to the electric chair. His tongue may be in his cheek as he deals with getting the information he needs from witnesses, but when it comes to protecting his own, he is very serious. K.T. Stevens has little to do as his devoted secretary, but having had an interesting film career up to this time, I thought that it was very important to mention her, as she receives third billing. Unbilled Percy Helton is also memorable as a paranoid visitor to the precinct who has a fear of television. Several great shots of mid 1950's Los Angeles locations (going from downtown to Beverly Hills to Santa Monica Beach) give it a period look that adds to the reality of the drama.
Poor Hall can't get a break. When his shady lawyer gets him off on a rift, Robinson has him accused of being a masher. Later, he's a public drunk, and more charges follow suit in Robinson's efforts to keep Hall detained. He knows that once Hall and his mistress (Joan Vohs) come upon each other, he'll get Hall to co-operate, and the way he goes about this is very clever. There's a very amusing sequence with Vohs, a fur model, being escorted away from work after modeling a fur for a client where the law-abiding police officer grabs the stoll off of her to hand back to the department store supervisor. Another amusing sequence has Goddard (basically underused but amusing in her few scenes) being taken in by the police while interviewing a "client". She has a very amusing exchange with Robinson in regards to "pick-ups", and you can see that Robinson, the victim in this wisecrack, is very amused by it.
Yet, as light-hearted as Robinson's character is, he ain't no sap, and when he does come across the man he believes to be the cop killer, he leaves no detail unexposed as he reveals what will happen to any cop killer as they head to the electric chair. His tongue may be in his cheek as he deals with getting the information he needs from witnesses, but when it comes to protecting his own, he is very serious. K.T. Stevens has little to do as his devoted secretary, but having had an interesting film career up to this time, I thought that it was very important to mention her, as she receives third billing. Unbilled Percy Helton is also memorable as a paranoid visitor to the precinct who has a fear of television. Several great shots of mid 1950's Los Angeles locations (going from downtown to Beverly Hills to Santa Monica Beach) give it a period look that adds to the reality of the drama.