zardoz-13 Review of From Headquarters

From Headquarters (1933)

Another Pre-Code, Warner Brothers' Crime Thriller!!!

[10/10 · 11 January 2023]

This snappy, fast-talking, Pre-Code, Warner Brothers murder mystery "From Headquarters" clocks in at an hour and four minutes. Nevertheless, working from a story by Robert N. Lee of "Little Caesar," director William Dieterle and "Kennel Murder Case" scribe Peter Milne have scribbled a crackerjack little melodrama with twists and turns. The standout in this gifted cast is Edward Ellis, who plays Dr. Van de Water, could put Grissom on "CSI" to shame with his lab analysis and sardonic wit. A slim George Brent heads up the cast as Lieutenant Stevens, the lead detective on the case with his fussing and fuming sidekick, Sergeant Boggs (Eugene Pallette of "Mr. Stitch"), playing bad cop to Stevens' good cop. Mind you, the whole thing is formula driven, but Dieterle and his writers peel back this onion with skill and guile. Surprisingly, science plays a significant role in "From Headquarters" with the equivalent of a wacky scientist who craves the prospect of a murder and relishes the way the evidence unravels the truth in the matter. Naturally, Dieterle plays the rotund Pallette with his bulldog tenacity off Brent cool, inquisitive Stevens who refrains from Boggs' pugnacious, in-your-face, obstinance. The damsel in distress, Lou Winton (Margaret Lindsay of "Jezebel") happens to be Stevens' old girlfriend, and Boggs is convinced beyond a doubt based on partial evidence that Lou shot a gun collector in the eye and killed him when he tried to take advantage of her. Warners stocked this thriller with the faces of some of his most familiar contract players. Hugh Herbert plays a bail bondsman who is desperately searching for prospective client and wounds up uncovering a murder in the police station. The pace is breathless, the performances first-rate, and the outcome a surprise. Basically, everything in "From Headquarters" transpires at police headquarters, so the film lives up to its title. This makes me think it may have been a stage plays since everything takes place in one setting. The first-person sequences when witnesses relate their side of the tale is done from a first person perspective. Perhaps the most risqué scene takes place during an autopsy. Dr. Van de Water and his assistant walk into the walk. The shape of a corpse under a sheet is obvious. As Dr. De Water bids his assistant to open the corpse's head, or what he refers to in snarky terms as "bread basket," we in the audience are treated to a low-angle shot from the corpse's perspective as the assistant starts to crack open his cranium. One delicious, Pre Code moment occurs when the camera zooms in on a golden statuette of a woman and then hovers even closer on her derriere. Utterly gratuitous! The Hays Office would have censored it. Meantime, there isn't a bad performance and you'll never get bored.