From Headquarters was directed by William Dieterle in 1933, one of five films Dieterle directed for Warner Brothers that year. It's a fast and snappy pre-Code film with George Brent and Eugene Palette investigating a murder, without ever leaving headquarters. The only other location in the film is the murdered man's apartment, which is shown in point-of-view shots (cinematography by William Reese)as each suspect (there are many) describes what he or she was doing there last night; since the murdered man was a drug user, an abuser of women and a blackmailer everyone had a motive. Dieterle and Reese also use some effectively extreme camera angles to capture the disorientation of suspects being questioned
The 63-minute film is also a very detailed documentary about the technical aspects of the case, with everything from fingerprinting to testing guns and hair samples shown in extensive detail and the various scientists involved depicted as both intelligent and enthusiastic. Policeman George Brent is in love with one of the suspects, played by Margaret Lindsay and another female suspect was driven to think of suicide because of the way the murdered man had treated her. One suspect actually murders another man in a closet in police headquarters.
If I have any quibbles about this film it is the attempts at humor that seem to be required in every B film, but here it is kept to a minimum, with Eugene Palette wanting to arrest everyone and a bail bondsman roaming the halls to drum up business. The arrest of the murderer turns out to be a very low-key parody of a murder mystery, without interfering with the seriousness of the film.
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