Scotland Yard

Edmund Lowe is a thief pursued through the upper Thames by the police. He is also an aristocratic banker, having a last evening with his wife, Joan Bennett, before he goes off to the War. The thief breaks in on the banker, humiliates him and flees with a locket containing photos of Joan and the banker. To hide from the police, he joins the army. Later in the War, he is injured and French doctor J. Carroll Naish does reconstructive surgery on his face, using the photo in the locket as his guide. He returns to civilian life as the banker.... and Miss Bennett's husband.

I was looking forward to this movie, expecting that director William K. Howard would show off his whirlwind technique, a dazzling display of Dutch angles and fast cuts. Alas, despite the collaboration of George Schneiderman -- a favorite cinematographer of John Ford from 1923-1935 -- and editor Jack Murray -- another longtime Ford favorite -- there is little of the razzle-dazzle that made Howard's movies stand out from the crowd in this period. Instead, we are confronted with a far more melodramatic movie, where the principal issue is how Lowe differentiates the two characters -- largely by speaking in a buzzy growl as the thief. Miss Bennett is on view as window dressing; it would be a couple of years before she was called on to do much more. The result is a decent but far-fetched and therefore uninvolving melodrama.

A bank robber, Dakin Barrolles (Edmund Lowe), has escaped by jumping into the Thames and swimming away from police boats looking for him. He climbs aboard a yacht and finds Xandra (Joan Bennett) and John Lasher (Edmund Lowe) honeymooning. Dakin threatens them with a gun that he never shows, which is a definite tell. He forces Xandra to bandage his ankle, all the while humiliating John Lasher who seems much too drunk to mind much. Before he dashes away Dakin takes Xandra's locket with a picture of both herself and her husband as a good luck charm.

Dakin enlists in the army, which with WWI on, means he will immediately depart for France far from the police. When Dakin is badly injured and his face blown off, the plastic surgeon has only the locket with John Lasher's picture to go by, and Dakin wakes up looking like Sir John. Meanwhile a captain has come looking for Dakin who is of course still wanted, and instead finds who he thinks is Sir John, who is also still missing. His reluctant wife who has become a party girl in her husband's absence comes to retrieve him back to England and his estate. Dakin does not originally plan to take advantage of Xandra or the situation, but complications ensue.

The plot is outlandish, but I think that is part of what makes it so much fun. It is much more than some random melodrama, with a titular Scotland Yard detective who apparently has so much time on his hands that he can devote all of that time and all of his men to trying to catch Dakin Barrolles in the act, when he doesn't even know for sure that this IS Barrolles.

A fun and realistic touch? The nurse in France assisting the plastic surgeon speaks in French to the English who are too polite to correct her until she catches herself and segues into English. She does this several times. Also fun is seeing Donald Crisp playing a villain, and not a very bright one at that.

Fleeing a botched bank robbery, veteran criminal Dakin Barrolles has a chance encounter with drunken banker Sir John Lasher and his beautiful wife Xandra. Barrolles is fascinated by Xandra and steals a locket with the couple's picture. World War I has just broken out and Barrolles and his accomplice Charles Fox decide to escape the police by joining the army. Barrolles is caught in a land mine and his face is blown away. A brilliant plastic surgeon, assuming the locket Barrolles carries shows a portrait of his real face, gives him the face of Sir John who has also joined the army and is missing in action. Barrolles, now believed to be Sir John, goes along with the masquerade in order to avoid further trouble with Scotland Yard which is still on his trail. Xandra, who is not sorry that her dissolute husband has vanished, comes to the hospital to bring "Sir John" home. Back in London, Barrolles is tempted to use his position as Sir John to rob the bank but he and Xandra-charmed by the uncharacteristic tenderness of her spouse-fall in love. Barrolles is caught between his love for Xandra and the urging of his old partner Fox to return to crime.

In spite of the title, Scotland Yard plays only a minor role in this completely unbelievable melodrama that is rife with plot holes and contrivances. A prime example of the latter is the plastic surgeon's willingness to play along with the ruse even after Barrolles has told him who he really is, accepting the criminal's word that he will not take advantage of Xandra and will leave her before they get to London. In the early scenes Edmund Lowe adopts a false nose, a moustache and a low growl to play Barrolles and a silly ass Englishman accent for Sir John. Later in the film Lowe is pretty much his usual movie self; a likeable, slightly shady scamp with a sense of honor. He is more convincing in a dual role he did just a few years later in THE GREAT IMPERSONATION. Joan Bennett looks lovely but has a very dull role and in the supporting cast only Donald Crisp stands out unless you count the unintentionally funny performance of Betty Leonard as a French nurse with a very fake accent. William K. Howard, a veteran of silent movies, still had not found his footing in the sound era and much of the film has that static, stilted quality that frequently mars movies made from 1929-30. Howard's direction picks up a bit in the climatic scenes but he's still a long way from his subsequent TRIAL OF VIVIENNE WARE and THE POWER AND THE GLORY

A robber on the run has an encounter with a banker and his wife. After an injury in World War 1, a case of mistaken identity and plastic surgery, he takes advantage of his new life.

A misleading title as the film has little to do with Scotland Yard and elements of the story are unbelievable. Joan Bennett as the wife has little opportunity to impress but Edmund Lowe plays two characters with some success. However, overall the film is unconvincing.