In an unnamed state, something has gone wrong with the parole process. Prisoners are getting out and disappearing, probably back to a life of crime. The FBI helps out by sending agent Michael O'Shea i to star as a clumsily backgrounded ex-con to discover te criminal ring that is getting prisoners out on parole for money, eve though each of the two parole hearings makes it abundantly clear who's on the take.
Besides the fixable problems with the script, O'Shea seems to be having problems with his line readings in the first half of the movie, and the camera seems nailed to the floor. Given that DP Gilbert Warrenton did some great work i the late silent era before getting stuck in the Bs when sound came in, I can only conclude that the budget could not afford any frills; even obvious fight scenes are avoided, and as a substitute, a decent amount of scene cutting tries to pick up the pace. It doesn't quite work, giving the the movie the visual quality of a well-preserved early talkie. A decent cast, including Evelyn Ankers, Turhan Bey, and Bess Flowers -- who even gets a line -- doesn't help to make this a poor time-waster.
Besides the fixable problems with the script, O'Shea seems to be having problems with his line readings in the first half of the movie, and the camera seems nailed to the floor. Given that DP Gilbert Warrenton did some great work i the late silent era before getting stuck in the Bs when sound came in, I can only conclude that the budget could not afford any frills; even obvious fight scenes are avoided, and as a substitute, a decent amount of scene cutting tries to pick up the pace. It doesn't quite work, giving the the movie the visual quality of a well-preserved early talkie. A decent cast, including Evelyn Ankers, Turhan Bey, and Bess Flowers -- who even gets a line -- doesn't help to make this a poor time-waster.