A Cena do Crime

They're all here. Lovelorn wife, old cop trying to stick around, gangsters with neat nicknames, forensic lab work, stool pigeons, etc. There is also an uninteresting back story about a job the wife is trying to get for her husband-cop, to "keep him safe". Think of a familiar plot device and it's here in "Scene Of The Crime".

That said, this picture holds your interest - it's a good story, when all is said and done. Good acting from start to finish and there are lots of good character actors; John McIntyre, Norman Lloyd, Gloria DeHaven, Jerome Cowan, and many others. I disagree with a reviewer above in that the picture held my interest right to the end, although I am a big fan of noir films. I did think that Van Johnson was a curious choice for the title role. I always thought there wasn't a mean bone in his body, not tough enough to play a detective in a gritty noir.

Lastly, the music director was Andre Previn, and the theme music at the beginning and end was good. He also wrote two songs that were unworthy of him, but they were played in a strip joint and fit into the setting with their trite tunes and lyrics. Despite all of the preceding, I rated it a seven, which means I think it's worth your time.

Detective Van Johnson's romantic evening out with wife Arlene Dahl is over before it's begun, when a harrowing telephone call informs him that former partner Monigan has lit his pipe for the last time, prior to being gunned down outside an illegal bookies, with $1000 in his pocket.

Accompanied by short sighted veteran, John McIntire and rookie, Tom Drake, Johnson is left to investigate a murder case tainted by allegations of police corruption. All except wacky informant, Norman Lloyd close ranks and a prolonged, arduous manhunt lies ahead.

With Arlene Dahl quaking in her high heels every time Johnson packs a rod and hits the streets, gripped by the possibility that the next time she sees him, he might be lying on a slab, the movie embarks upon a parallel route into the realms of domestic drama seen from Dahl's vantage point, illustrating the emotionally draining experience of being a cop's wife. Such is her devotion, that returning home in the small hours, with lipstick on his collar, after a 'romantic' encounter with gangster's moll and prize trollop Gloria De Haven, draws the polar opposite response to the Connie Francis treatment.

Serious soul searching starts, however, with the reappearance of ex lover, suave, debonair Tom Helmore, still carrying a torch of colossal proportions. Dahl is suddenly, painfully alerted to the safe, secure, stable and extremely prosperous life that she might have had.

'Scene of the Crime' is not a classic film noir, but as it steams along its flinty course towards the tensely violent finale, it successfully paints a contrasting picture between Johnson's unglamorous world of crime'n'grime and Dahl's no less sacrificial, contemplative, disquieting perspective on marriage to a high ranking police officer.

An LA police detective (Van Johnson) investigates the murder of another detective and gets involved with night club singer and stripper played by Gloria De Haven. The story has a neat double cross. A criminal organization from "down south" sends a couple of "lobos" to LA in order to take over a bookmaking syndicate. Corruption is at the center of the story as the dead detective was carrying a wad of cash. Johnson's out to prove that he (dead detective) wasn't on the take. His street contact Sleepy (Norman Lloyd) provides some of the films more vivid moments, and Jerome Cowan (Sam Spade's partner in Maltese Falcon) has a great part as "fixer" Arthur Webson. Johnson does very well in the part, combining breeziness that he honed in earlier films with sufficient grit to be believable as a tough detective. His wife played by Arlene Dahl looks great and they share some pretty good chemistry in their scenes. The film does a good job of capturing the story's different elements and cohesively combining them. The action doesn't always come, but when it does it is surprisingly sudden and brutal for the times.

This is a very entertaining look at big city cops and robbers with shades of film noir showing though. The standout performance in a potentially femme fatale role is Gloria DeHaven. I suspect the writers, John Bartlow Martin and Charles Schnee, along with director Roy Rowland, had experiences with untrustworthy women, for Lili (Gloria DeHaven) could turn any man's heart to putty, then fool him over and over. Van Johnson too turns in a subdued performance which is called for in the character (Mike Conovan) he plays. Conovan's very liberal wife, especially for 1949, is played by Arlene Dahl, who is fed up with the demands of her husband's job but who also trusts her husband to be with a vixen and still stay true to her. This is an effective counterbalance to the untrustworthiness of Lili. Great supporting roles abound filled with standout performances from John McIntire's "too old to cut the mustard" part all the way to the Sleeper, Norman Lloyd. Yuk, Yuk, it's great. There is a lot of realistic blood and guts thrown in complete with car chases that foretell things to come in action movies. Heat up some popcorn, get a cold one, then sit back and enjoy the ride.

Van Johnson plays it a lot rougher than usual when cast as a hardboiled police detective in Scene Of The Crime. He's got reason to be hard in this case. A fellow detective has been murdered, shot down in the mean streets of Los Angeles. The victim had a thousand dollars in his pocket and may have been doing some off duty guard duty for some bookmakers. Which would make the cop and incidentally Van's friend a crooked cop.

Which among other things is what Captain Leon Ames wants Van to find out as well as bring in the killer. What Van and his squad uncover is a gang of crooks who are robbing these illegal gambling establishments, be they bookmaking parlors, dice games, poker games, whatever.

This case is the main concern of this film, but Johnson has a whole lot of other things on his plate. A partner, John McIntire, who is slowing up with age, a young detective Tom Drake who is learning the ropes as fast as Van can teach him, and his wife Arlene Dahl who would like very much for her husband to get out of the cop business.

Two other performances really stand out in this film. First Gloria DeHaven as singer/gangster girl friend who's definitely the most hardboiled character in the film. Her reasons for her actions tread into adult areas that the Code frowned on, but are still implied. Secondly Norman Lloyd you will not forget as one of Van's stool pigeons who might just be missing a whole suit in his deck of cards. Lloyd will definitely make your skin crawl.

Scene Of The Crime is a good cop drama, atypical for MGM at that time, but they would soon be doing more of these.