pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...
crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
directed by
Irving Cummings
Irving Caminsky (October 9, 1888 – April 18, 1959) was an American movie actor and director.
Career
Born in New York City, Cummings started his acting career at age 16 in ''Diplomacy''. His Broadway, performances included ''In the Long R ...
Lillian Miles
Lillian Miles (August 1, 1907 – February 27, 1972) was an American actress in several films in the 1930s.
Biography
Miles was born in 1907 in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Aside from singing and performing in the celebrated 'Continental' musical number in ...
(in her first starring role) and
Walter Connolly
Walter Connolly (April 8, 1887 – May 28, 1940) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 50 films between 1914 and 1939. His best known film is ''It Happened One Night'' (1934).
Early years
Connolly attended St. Xavier Coll ...
. The film was originally known as ''Plainclothes Man''.
Synopsis
Tough
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
cop Johnny McCloud falls in love with
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
singer Lola Parker, but she seems more involved with gangster George Perry.
Lillian Miles
Lillian Miles (August 1, 1907 – February 27, 1972) was an American actress in several films in the 1930s.
Biography
Miles was born in 1907 in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Aside from singing and performing in the celebrated 'Continental' musical number in ...
as Lola Parker
*
Walter Connolly
Walter Connolly (April 8, 1887 – May 28, 1940) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 50 films between 1914 and 1939. His best known film is ''It Happened One Night'' (1934).
Early years
Connolly attended St. Xavier Coll ...
Arthur Vinton
Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more ...
as Happy O'Neill
*
Jack La Rue
Jack La Rue (born Gaspare Biondolillo; May 3, 1902 – January 11, 1984) was an American film and stage actor.
Early years
The son of Sicilian immigrants Pasquale and Concetta Biondolillo, La Rue was born in New York City. His father sailed to ...
as Alberti
*
Clarence Muse
Clarence Muse (October 14, 1889 – October 13, 1979) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, singer, and composer. He was the first African American to appear in a starring role in a film, 1929's ''Hearts in Dixie''. He acted for ...
as Smoke Johnson
*
Emmett Corrigan
Emmett Corrigan (born Antoine Zilles; June 5, 1867 – October 29, 1932) was a Dutch-born American stage and screen actor. Various sources give his birth year as 1867, 1868 and 1871.
Corrigon was born as Antoine Zilles in Amsterdam, Holland, and ...
as Christy
*
Harry Seymour
Harry may refer to:
TV shows
* ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin
* ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons
* ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...
as Brodie
*
Kathrin Clare Ward
Kathrin or ''Katrin'' or ''Kathryn'' or ''Kathrine'' is a female given name.
Persons with the name
* Ann-Kathrin Kramer (born 1966), German writer and actress
* Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff (born 1960), German athlete in equestrian
* Kathryn Adams (18 ...
as Landlad
Critical reception
In his review of the film in
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
, film critic
Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934...gives an excellent performance, which at least atones for some of the shortcomings in the film," and that "Miles is acceptable as the torch singer."
References
Bibliography
* Langman, Larry & Finn, Daniel. ''A Guide to American Crime Films of the Thirties''. Greenwood Press, 1995.