"HOMICIDE BUREAU"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23810, 17 May 1939, Page 5

"HOMICIDE BUREAU"

MODERN POLICE METHODS After being severely criticised by the Citizens' League for his inability to cope with the increasing crime wave, Police Captain Haines (Moroni Olsen) advises his men in the Homicide Bureau, the subject of the Grand Theatre's new main feature, to clean up all their cases, but without violating the constitutional rights of any suspect. Jim Logan (Bruce Cabot) is ordered to meet the incoming J. G Bliss, new head of the Police Department laboratory. Logan finds the newcomer is an attractive young woman (Rita Hay worth), and strangely, takes an instant dislike to her. A gangster murder is turned over to Jim. The killer informs his gang chieftain, Briggs (Norman Willis), that their would-be blackmailer has been "rubbed out," and Briggs continues with his preparations to ship a cargo of scrap metal to foreign munitions manufacturers. Logan arrests Chuck but is forced to release him when the evidence proves insufficient. In an attempt to force a confession from Chuck, Jim goes to the gangster's apartment and causes him to fall through a window Aroused, the Citizens' League press charges against Jim and have him reduced in rank. Determined to continue his investigation. Logan finally has conclusive evidence of Chuck's connection with the iunk dealer's racket Jamieson (Lee Prather). an honest junk dealer, is murdered and another junk dealer is later found dead in a hit-and-run accident Two men in the car claim that the junk dealer was only a hitch-hiker whom they had picked up. but Jim learns the man had been dead two hours before the accident He allows the men to escape, and trails them to a ship which is boarded by Captain Haines, who is conducting his own investigation Jim saves his superior from certain death. The boat's sailing is prevented, and a terrific fight follows. The gangsters are captured, break down and confess. Henley is exposed as the power behind the throne; Jim is reinstated, and Miss Bliss decides to make a policeman and not the Police Department her major interest in the future

Ralph Bellamy and Fay Wray head the cast of "Smashing the Spy Ring." the other attraction of the new programme Bellamy is seen as a G-man assigned to expose and bring to justice the foreign agents seeking to steal American military and naval secrets: Miss Wray is cast as the lovely sister of a murdered federal man. Others in the cast are Regis Toomey, Warren Hull, Ann Doran, Walter Klngsford, Lorna Gray, and Dick Curtis.