A lot of fun.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

After a couple of years of exciting, stylized gangster action usually depicting the mobsters as colourful, quirky individuals - enough so that a poll taken in the early 1930s showed that gangsters were high on the list of who the man in the street wished he was, J. Edgar Hoover got involved. He was alarmed that his F.B.I. department was not looked on with the proper respect and went about changing the way the public viewed officers of the law. By 1932,33, it was all about law and order with gangsters playing a very supporting role: new characters made their mark - reporters, gossip columnists and lawyers!!"From Headquarters" was exactly that, with an emphasis on police procedure and forensics and fortunately Warners was able to make it a showcase for their bevy of character actors - Henry O'Neil is the stolid Inspector Donnelly, Hugh Herbert is the used car salesman for the bail bond business, Murray Kinnell is Horton the enigmatic butler, Eugene Palette in another of his gallery of irascible detectives, Ken Murray a fast talking reporter and henpecked Hobart Cavanaugh, playing against type, as Mugs Manson, a crime boss who knows something vital about the crime but is not listened to. He is a "person of interest" in the murder of Broadway playboy Gordon Bates (who else but Kenneth Thomson). George Brent (at his very dullest) is Lieut. Jim Stevens called in to investigate and shocked to learn that his old flame, showgirl Lou Winton (lovely Margaret Lindsay)is the girl in the picture, supposedly engaged to Bates although she strenuously denies it. Forget Brent and Lindsay, Edward Ellis is terrific as the forensic officer with a mad gleam in his eye who is just itching to get his hands on a good old fashioned murder!!Just to relieve the procedural tedium and to show you that it is really a pre-coder, Bates is discovered to be a drug addict and Dorothy Burgess has a "way out" scene as Dolly White, an agitated hop head (whose performance of crazy laughter is worthy of "Reefer Madness") - she also saw Bates at his apartment and clocked him on the head with a statue. This fellow was knocked on the head by so many people, did he really need to be shot as well?? Robert Barrett was just a fantastic character actor, equally at ease playing detectives, butlers and in this case Mr. Anderzian, a shifty foreign importer who is involved in the most exciting scene in the movie. Also interesting how the police obtain his fingerprints - he thinks he is pretty nifty but he doesn't reckon on an ungloved hand on a polished wooden desk!!

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