British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner.
Sheila Terry and
William Powell in
Private Detective 62 (Michael Curtiz, 1933).
In
Private Detective 62 (Michael Curtiz, 1933), William Powell plays a discredited diplomat who accidentally finds work with a seedy private detective. The diplomat's ethics later bump up against the detective's illegal methods after their new partnership is financed by a local gambler. When the gambler ends up losing a lot of money to a good-looking socialite lady (Margaret Lindsay), the seedy detective is hired by the gambler to frame the lucky lady. He puts his new partner on the case but the ex-diplomat finds out that the lady is a lady, and falls in love. When the frame fails to materialise the detective and gambler fake a scene when the lady is paid off and attacked by the gambler. She shoots him with a fixed gun and runs. Right away, a hood shoots the gambler at the order of the detective and he gets two birds with one bullet...out from his partnership with the gambler (taking over his club and money) and future blackmail on the lady. But the diplomat partner gets in the way and, by playing a good detective, finds the hood and the evidence to clear the lady and get his former seedy partner arrested.
AlsExGal at IMDb: "William Powell's stay at Warner Brothers was a short one - only a couple of years - but he hit the bullseye in every picture he did there. This film is one of them. (...) here as in most of the early 30s Warner Brothers films, most of the fun is the journey, not the destination. Highly recommended." And Doug Doepke at IMDb: "Powell's his usual slick self, but without an opportunity for his amusing Thin Man tongue-in-cheek. Shot in just 21 days, the erratic script sometimes shows (follow Janet's path, if you can).
Nonetheless, ace studio director Mike Curtiz blends tricky plot elements in smooth fashion so that it's hard to notice. Note, however, the fleeting reference to "snow" (heroin) and "hophead". This is a pre-Code production, while such references to hard drugs would disappear from mainstream movies for several decades. Speaking of hopheads, I'm still wondering if James Bell's Whitey is supposed to be a dash of comic relief or suffering ill effects of his addiction. Either way, it's the movie's only actor's blemish, at least in my opinion. No, the movie's nothing special, except for the compelling Powell who would soon get to show his full range of talents in the delicious Thin Man series."
Source: IMDb.
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