It's difficult understanding why a good number of internet posters find Scene of a Crime to be that worthwhile. Touted as a harbinger of soon to come 1950s TV police procedurals (Dragnet for example), the film has the dubious distinction of serving as the template for these bland narratives in which quirky but stalwart officers take down a coterie of unpleasant bad guys.
Van Johnson (usually known for light comic fare) is tasked with playing the hard-edged detective Mike Conovan who is assigned to investigate the murder of a fellow detective Monigan, found with $1,000 in cash stuffed in his pocket after being killed by a gangster. He's assisted by fellow cop Fred Piper (John McIntire) who is eventually found out to have deteriorating eyesight and faces the prospect of being reassigned to "desk duty." A rookie investigator, CC Gordan (Tom Drake)-the "CC" standing for "carbon copy" as in carbon copy of his immediate superior Conovan--rounds out the trio.
The script is filled with a surfeit of dialogue as the intrepid detectives go around interviewing various bad guys. The most interesting among them is Sleeper (played by the ubiquitous Norman Lloyd who only recently passed away at the ripe old age of 107).
Sleeper is about to rat out those responsible for murdering Monigan but meets a grisly end hanging from streetlamp pole (when Conovan and associates find a matchbook with the names Turk Kingby (Richard Benedict) and Lafe Douque (William Haade) belonging to Sleeper, they get their first solid lead possibly connecting these thugs with the Monigan murder).
Occasionally we're privy to a few action sequences in which Conovan has a fistfight with one of the bad guys and is almost machine-gunned to death by the gangsters in a passing car (the baddies do manage to kill Lafe while he's handcuffed to Conovan who's bringing him in for processing).
Of the two women involved here in the narrative, it's nightclub singer Lili played by Glorida DeHaven who turns out to be the femme fatale of the piece. She eventually double crosses Conovan who initially believed she was helping him. Then there's Conovan's wife, Gloria (Arlene Dahl) who takes up screen time in a pedestrian subplot in which she needs time on her own, disillusioned with her husband continuing to work in such a dangerous profession.
I suppose the climax is the best part of the film in which the bad guys get their comeuppance. It's Turk who confesses to Monigan's murder and clears him of corruption while on his deathbed in the hospital after being shot in a hail of police gunfire.
Van Johnson tries hard at acting as a hard-boiled cop and doesn't quite pull it off. Dahl and DeHaven are fine in the supporting female roles along with the rest of the cast despite being saddled with too much dialogue at the expense of the action.
Scene of the Crime never takes off as its moments of suspense are few and far between.
Van Johnson (usually known for light comic fare) is tasked with playing the hard-edged detective Mike Conovan who is assigned to investigate the murder of a fellow detective Monigan, found with $1,000 in cash stuffed in his pocket after being killed by a gangster. He's assisted by fellow cop Fred Piper (John McIntire) who is eventually found out to have deteriorating eyesight and faces the prospect of being reassigned to "desk duty." A rookie investigator, CC Gordan (Tom Drake)-the "CC" standing for "carbon copy" as in carbon copy of his immediate superior Conovan--rounds out the trio.
The script is filled with a surfeit of dialogue as the intrepid detectives go around interviewing various bad guys. The most interesting among them is Sleeper (played by the ubiquitous Norman Lloyd who only recently passed away at the ripe old age of 107).
Sleeper is about to rat out those responsible for murdering Monigan but meets a grisly end hanging from streetlamp pole (when Conovan and associates find a matchbook with the names Turk Kingby (Richard Benedict) and Lafe Douque (William Haade) belonging to Sleeper, they get their first solid lead possibly connecting these thugs with the Monigan murder).
Occasionally we're privy to a few action sequences in which Conovan has a fistfight with one of the bad guys and is almost machine-gunned to death by the gangsters in a passing car (the baddies do manage to kill Lafe while he's handcuffed to Conovan who's bringing him in for processing).
Of the two women involved here in the narrative, it's nightclub singer Lili played by Glorida DeHaven who turns out to be the femme fatale of the piece. She eventually double crosses Conovan who initially believed she was helping him. Then there's Conovan's wife, Gloria (Arlene Dahl) who takes up screen time in a pedestrian subplot in which she needs time on her own, disillusioned with her husband continuing to work in such a dangerous profession.
I suppose the climax is the best part of the film in which the bad guys get their comeuppance. It's Turk who confesses to Monigan's murder and clears him of corruption while on his deathbed in the hospital after being shot in a hail of police gunfire.
Van Johnson tries hard at acting as a hard-boiled cop and doesn't quite pull it off. Dahl and DeHaven are fine in the supporting female roles along with the rest of the cast despite being saddled with too much dialogue at the expense of the action.
Scene of the Crime never takes off as its moments of suspense are few and far between.