User Reviews

Guy Kibbee brightened many a movie in supporting roles. Kibbee was a great character actor but really couldn't carry a leading role even in a B movie. Jim Hanvey (Kibbee) has retired to the country but, since he was a renowned detective, an insurance company asks him to recover the stolen emeralds. Come to find out a young friend of Hanvey, Don Terry (Tom Brown) and Joan Frost (Lucie Kaye) stole the emeralds from her family's home safe on a dare. They intended to replace the emeralds but before they can do so, the jewels are in turn stolen from them. They too ask Hanvey to investigate and help them get the emeralds back to the safe. Hanvey finds the emeralds, but when Don tries to replace them, he's knocked out and unfortunately, the Frost's butler is murdered. In a rather hit or miss fashion, Hanvey sorts it all out in the end. A high light of the movie is seeing Ed Gargan and Edward Brophy as incompetent and rather likable thugs who were initially menacing but end up helping Hanvey. Gargan generally played dumb cops or house detectives so it was odd seeing him as a hoodlum. All in all, a pleasant enough way to kill an hour but a rather humdrum programmer. However, the print of the movie I saw was the shortened version and was a poor print. This certainly may have influenced my assessment of the movie.

Guy Kibbee was one of the most lovable and popular character actors of the 1930's and played his share of leading roles, but this is perhaps his worst. It is a poverty row mystery that seems through its title to be the pilot for a series of films which never followed. This single film surrounds a jewel robbery with amateur detective Kibbee determined to prove that someone other than the accused was the guilty party. A boring young romance throws the film off its pacing. Other than Kibbee, only Catherine Doucet as a Margaret Dumont like matron adds any amusement. Kibbee would later have a short-lived series playing Scattergood Baines, but this one was instantly forgettable.