Alerte aux banques

Clean-cut Conrad Nagel has a quick smile and ready wit as a federal agent on the trail of a pair of bank robbers whose brief stay in a small-town jail provides them with the perfect alibi when the local bank is robbed. A routine low-budget programmer that will fade quickly from the memory. The obligatory comic relief character - a clumsy photographer named Bulb - is particularly irritating.

Conrad Nagel is the only "big" name in this film, but I'd say it's a pretty satisfying B. You have to remember this is a poverty row product, yet it is well directed and acted and has a couple of interesting twists and turns as far as the script goes. Conrad Nagel and Eleanor Hunt play a G-man and G-woman who seem to have something romantic going - I was actually a bit confused at first as to whether or not they were playing a married couple - and are actually allowed to work together in the field in the days of J. Edgar, but then I guess that's another story. I think this film was going for the "Thin Man" married sleuth recipe that was such a hit in the 30's without being redundant, thus the federal agent angle. Nagel and Hunt display quite a bit of chemistry as well as good sleuthing teamwork. What I found distracting were some of Eleanor Hunt's headdresses! I know the well-dressed lady usually wore one up until the 1960's but gosh, I'm surprised she wasn't receiving radio signals on some of them! What brings the Feds to town is a group of bank robbers who have begun to knock off members of their own gang when they get to be too big of a risk - including one brazen murder inside a big city jail. You'd think this would have to lower morale inside the gang, but you'd be wrong. They seem to stay loyal to Mr. Big regardless of the fact that they have to know they could be next. And that's what our Fed agents are after - the Mr. Big behind it all, since the local authorities have been concentrating on picking up all of the low men on the totem pole with no lessening in the activity of the gang of robbers.

There are really no surprises in this one, it's just an adequately executed bit of film history that is a good time passer. I could have done without Vince Barnett's somewhat forced pieces of slap-stick, and the local police are made to look so stupid it makes the cops in the Boston Blackie series look like Columbo, but that was probably done to make the Feds stand out as brilliant and saving the day.

I am a life-long lover of 'B' movies, especially those from the 30's but this one is so inept I'm amazed it wasn't shelved into oblivion.

Being a low-budget job is no excuse for the dreadful writing, non-existent direction, the camera shots that simply don't match, the poor editing, the always-smiling or laughing performances... and the pathetically acted 'funny-man' who provides the foil for the Thin Man-like leads in place of the latter's dog...

Believe me, the dog did better.

Bank Alarm... by the way, despite being mentioned in the opening scene, has absolutely nothing to do with alarms, and actually very little to do with banks...!

There is only ONE scene in the film worth mentioning, set in a jail... which I won't spoil for you... and that's it...!

There are hundreds of films of this genre and period, and 10 minutes from any one of them will provide more satisfaction than this entire film. Trying to defend this rubbish by saying it's 'low-budget' and a 'B-movie' is grossly insulting to all the good (even excellent) films in this category.

Even if you just like slapstick, and are under 9-years-old you can do better than this.

Such a disappointment.

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On the silent screen and the early sound era Conrad Nagel was a major star working with such people as Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer. But by 1937 he was in the minor leagues working at Grand National Studios and starring in a series where he plays G-man named Alan O'Connor.

In this film Bank Alarm Nagel is working on a series of bank robberies and since the New Deal and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation bank robbery is now a federal crime. It's what J. Edgar Hoover's agency did its best work.

But there's another wrinkle here as someone is attempting to change serial numbers to make the loot untraceable. By dumb luck he changes a bill and makes a serial number the same as one in Nagel's hands. The second wrinkle is that Nagel's sister is actually being romanced by one of the gang.

Vince Barnett plays a photographer and Nagel's sidekick. I might have shot the guy on general stupidity grounds. What was kind of touching in Scarface did not work at all in Bank Alarm for Barnett.

Conrad Nagel must have wished for the arms of Greta Garbo once more.

This film begins with an agent for the Department of Justice by the name of "Alan O'Connor" (Conrad Nagel) along with his assistant "Bobbie Reynolds" (Eleanor Hunt) being sent to investigate a series of bank robberies in and around Los Angeles. However, upon starting their investigation they discover that their lead suspect has been killed while in jail awaiting questioning. That being said, they have no recourse other than to wait and see whether the bank heists continue and then follow up accordingly. It's during this time that Alan's sister "Kay O'Connor" (Wilma Francis) arrives and eager to show her around they invite her and a male friend she met on the airplane named "Jerry Turner" (Frank Milan) out to dinner. What they don't know is that Jerry has just flown in to join up with the bank robbers in a particular heist planned later in the week and is planning on using his relationship with Kay should anything go wrong. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a basic crime-drama from the 30's which clearly shows its age. To that end, although it flows smoothly enough, I didn't especially care for the inclusion of the bumbling photographer named "Clarence 'Bulb' Callahan" (Vince Barnett) who was brought in for comedic effect as it cheapened the overall effect. Be that as it may, while this wasn't a bad film necessarily, it could have been better and for that reason I have rated it as just slightly below average.