"Bureau of Missing Persons" (BoMP) is a rather simplistic movie with very underdeveloped characters. There was a captain who was a fatherly type who always had the right answer and knew what was best. That included keeping a man's infidelity hidden from his wife by cooking up an amnesia story for him (for the sake of his wife and kids, of course). The guy literally abandoned his family to be with his side chick and Capt. Webb (Lewis Stone), in all of his wisdom, decided to give the man an out because, I'm assuming, he was able to divine that the best thing for all involved was to keep his cheating hidden.
There was also Det. Butch Saunders (Pat O'Brien) who was demoted to the BoMP because he was a hot head who believed force was the answer to every cop problem. He was lusting after Norma Roberts (Bette Davis), a woman supposedly looking for her missing husband. He had such a hard on for her it never occurred to him that she could be lying about her missing husband.
Of course, she wasn't lying, because beautiful young women that cops fall in love with are incapable of lying. Furthermore, she was wanted for murder, and that's definitely something beautiful young women are incapable of. She was in New York tracking down Therme Roberts (Alan Dinehart), the man she was accused of killing.
There was Belle Saunders (Glenda Farrell), an already married woman who managed to rope Det. Saunders into a marriage so that she could stop by the precinct once a week yelling "Buthcy!" and hold out her hand for money. It was a weak role for Glenda Farrell. She deserved much better. She was physically beaten by Butchy for lying. In fact, she was beaten in a police HQ and everyone went about their business like spousal abuse was an acceptable part of marriage. I suppose it was.
Generally, this was a lousy movie. They supposedly took some of the missing person cases from real police files, but that doesn't mean they'll be interesting to watch in a movie.
Something that did interest me was the mention of the word "rape." The cops were sitting around talking about the different police divisions and mentioned "rape men" referring to the detectives who specialized in sexual assault crimes. Of the hundreds of movies I've watched from 1934 and before, I'd never heard the word uttered even though there were movies in which it did happen. I guess it can be spoken when being used to refer to anything besides a rape that actually happened. Go figure.
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There was also Det. Butch Saunders (Pat O'Brien) who was demoted to the BoMP because he was a hot head who believed force was the answer to every cop problem. He was lusting after Norma Roberts (Bette Davis), a woman supposedly looking for her missing husband. He had such a hard on for her it never occurred to him that she could be lying about her missing husband.
Of course, she wasn't lying, because beautiful young women that cops fall in love with are incapable of lying. Furthermore, she was wanted for murder, and that's definitely something beautiful young women are incapable of. She was in New York tracking down Therme Roberts (Alan Dinehart), the man she was accused of killing.
There was Belle Saunders (Glenda Farrell), an already married woman who managed to rope Det. Saunders into a marriage so that she could stop by the precinct once a week yelling "Buthcy!" and hold out her hand for money. It was a weak role for Glenda Farrell. She deserved much better. She was physically beaten by Butchy for lying. In fact, she was beaten in a police HQ and everyone went about their business like spousal abuse was an acceptable part of marriage. I suppose it was.
Generally, this was a lousy movie. They supposedly took some of the missing person cases from real police files, but that doesn't mean they'll be interesting to watch in a movie.
Something that did interest me was the mention of the word "rape." The cops were sitting around talking about the different police divisions and mentioned "rape men" referring to the detectives who specialized in sexual assault crimes. Of the hundreds of movies I've watched from 1934 and before, I'd never heard the word uttered even though there were movies in which it did happen. I guess it can be spoken when being used to refer to anything besides a rape that actually happened. Go figure.
Free on Odnoklassniki.