The Devil's Henchman (1949) User Reviews

B Crime Drama

[magicshadows-90098 · 6/10 · 23 January 2017]

Warner Baxter is one of my personal favourites. I grew up watching his Crime Doctor films on late night TV. Here, Baxter plays a waterfront derelict who survives by scrounging and stealing. He sells his goods to Banning (Regis Toomey), who owns a second hand shop on the docks. Baxter meets the simple but frightening Rhino (Mike Mazurki) shortly after stumbling upon a murdered sailor.

It is revealed that Baxter is not a derelict but a detective investigating theft from cargo ships. Baxter proves that a shipment of furs were tampered with. He believes he knows how the thefts were accomplished but he wants to infiltrate the gang and catch the crooks in the act. Sure enough, Toomey and Mazurki are gang members, but who is the brain behind the robberies?

Mary Beth Hughes is billed second but has little to do as one of Toomey's partners. Peggy Converse has a meaty role as the owner of a waterfront bar. She seems to be very bright and she's very aware of all of the waterfront activities. One of the neat little angles of the movie has Baxter pass information on to his partner via a organ grinder's monkey. The film is of the standard of Baxter's Crime Doctor films, pleasing but not spectacular.

The devil is a dimwit.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 23 March 2023]

While he might not be playing the crime doctor here in ond of his last films, Warner Baxter is still trying to cure the disease of organized crime. Along with Mary Beth Hughes, Mike Mazurki, and Regis Toomey, Morris provides enough interest in this waterfront drama with lots of intrigue and fascinating low class characters. With colorful characters with names like Silky, Rhino and Tip, as well as some great seedy looking sets, you know that Baxter is as far away from his high society living in all those fabulous 30's romantic comedies and dramas and musicals, and he'll be in danger of being outed as derelict salvage man who really makes his living exposing insurance fraud schemes. Toomey (as Tip) is the seedy head of a robbery racket, and Mazurki is his right hand thug, a dimwit whose trust of Baxter is the key to bringing Tip down.

While Hughes gets top female billing, it's Peggy Converse who gets the attention as the owner of a waterfront dive, the type of part that Joan Blondell would make mincemeat out of and that Thelma Ritter would have been great in. There's a cute organ grinder monkey as a key element of the plot, passing on messages from Baxter, and twice as smart as Mazurki's Rhino, one of his best performances. Baxter gives a sly performance that shows he still had it 20 years after transitioning to the talkies, and there's a great supporting cast outside of those I've mentioned. A better than average script for a B film, quite unique for the types of low budget crime dramas and film noir of the late 40's, a staple of the underrated Columbia B unit. A nice mix of comedy along with the darker elements makes this consistently entertaining.