User Reviews

For playboy Rod LaRocque, being removed from the partnership of his father's firm simply leads him into another career opportunity, becoming one of the assistant DA's in his city, having been studying law and being a man about town while his father believes he should have been working with him. LaRocque finds his first case on his first night of being hired, being at the scene of a mob related murder and taking over the case even before his first day on the job. His new boss is upset by his innocent involvement in it, but basically goes along with LaRocque taking over the case.

Marian Nixon and Betty Compson are the two women involved in his life and in the case, Nixon a reporter whom he dates and Compson tied to the mob, and unfortunately, neither are Myrna Loy and he certainly isn't William Powell. LaRocque isn't really leading man material even in early 1930's terms, having a high pitched voice that on screen lacks a romantic touch, and in some aspects, he appears to be more of a villainous type. Still, this isn't a bad film and if you can manage to deal with the poor print quality (faded imaging and tinny sound), you'll find it somewhere amusing. I'd still prefer Powell as the lawmakers from "Manhattan Melodrama" and "Evelyn Prentice" over LaRocque's assistant DA who seems more interested in seeing his name in the society column than actually getting any crime fighting done.

Not one, not two, but three stand-out performances enliven this otherwise turgid tale from the studios of Edgar Rice Burroughs. A filmed stage play with a great deal of talk and somewhat less of action, The Drag-Net is further burdened by the insufferably arch "acting" of Rod La Rocque who strolls through his role like a stupefied mummy.

Miss Nixon, although attractively photographed and a bit more animated than the sleepwalking Rocque, also seems a liability as her part could be eliminated from the picture altogether without any loss of comprehension. In fact, the picture would not only move a whole lot faster for her absence but might even get by as a passable thriller. Whilst we're about it, we could scissor out all of Mr Le Saint's sequence as well and half of Mr Girard's.

This leaves us with all the good nightclub stuff and all the wonderfully fraught-with-menace sequences involving John Dilson as a Jekyll-Hyde lawyer (his best performance ever), Jack Adair as an especially greasy nightclub manager (his best performance ever) and Edward Keane as a gloriously malfeasant assistant district attorney (his best performance ever).

Nicely photographed by director/cinematographer Edward New Adventures of Tarzan Kull, this picture, despite carrying the burden of a mummified Rocque, certainly makes a fascinating addition to Burroughs/Tarzan lore.

Son of a prominent attorney is shipped off to the DA's office in the hopes that it will stop his all night partying. It doesn't stop, and he soon finds himself in trouble when he's found to be nearby to two separate murders. Okay crime drama/potboiler. It's a typically upper crust mingling with the bad guys tales as our hero mixes with the show girls and gangsters who seem to frequent every Hollywood night club. Its an over done tale that seems to be often on the verge of silliness. The acting is wildly uneven with good performances coming from some and other that cross well into the over done realm (some of the crooks are just awful). It's a mixed bag sort a film. Its fine to sit through once but its not something you'll need see a second time.