La scène du crime

Original title: Scene of the Crime

1949
Approved
1h 34m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

1.5K

YOUR RATING

Gloria DeHaven and Van Johnson in La scène du crime (1949)

While his wife is urging him to quit the force, a Los Angeles homicide detective hunts for the killer responsible for the murder of his ex-partner, who might have been on the take with local bookies.

Play trailer2:07

1 Video

28 Photos

Film Noir Crime Drama Mystery

While his wife is urging him to quit the force, a Los Angeles homicide detective hunts for the killer responsible for the murder of his ex-partner, who might have been on the take with local... Read allWhile his wife is urging him to quit the force, a Los Angeles homicide detective hunts for the killer responsible for the murder of his ex-partner, who might have been on the take with local bookies.While his wife is urging him to quit the force, a Los Angeles homicide detective hunts for the killer responsible for the murder of his ex-partner, who might have been on the take with local bookies.

Director
- Roy Rowland
Writers
- John Bartlow Martin
- Charles Schnee
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

1.5K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Roy Rowland
Writers
- John Bartlow Martin
- Charles Schnee
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Videos1

Trailer 2:07

Theatrical Trailer

Photos27

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
This film has many actors cast against previous types. Van Johnson had appeared in light comedies and musicals, making him a teen idol at the time. His versatility, proven in this film, would lead to his role in Bastogne (1949). Gloria DeHaven has previously been cast as sweet, innocent girls, but here she is a stripper and gun moll. Arlene Dahl, who would have been expected to play the stripper, here plays a nagging wife.

Goofs
When Detective Piper introduces the young man that sold the .38 S&W revolver to the cop killer to detective Conovan the man says he sold the gun to a man in a bar. Conovan then grills the man about his getting a lousy eighty bucks for the gun that killed his former partner. But at no time did the man mention getting eighty bucks for the gun.

Quotes
Sleeper: Naturally, I know you know I know somethin'.
Mike Conovan: I know you know I know you know somethin'.

Connections
Featured in Some of the Best: Twenty-Five Years of Motion Picture Leadership (1949)

Soundtracks
I'M A GOODY-GOODY GIRL
(uncredited)
Music by André Previn
Lyrics by William Katz
Sung (with partial striptease) by Jean Carter

User reviews38

Featured review

6/10

From the nitty-gritty side of M-G-M...compact and well-written

Two veteran Los Angeles police detectives and a well-meaning rookie set out to find the killer of an off-duty fellow officer who may have been on the take. This is an L.A. filled with dangerous broads, bookie joints, ex-bootleggers in on a new racket, and cops in natty suits and broad-billed hats. The pulpy, slangy dialogue is fun at times, as are the performances from Van Johnson and Gloria DeHaven (playing a chanteuse "with a figure like champagne and a heart like the cork"). Other, later crime-dramas would quickly up the ante on such a scenario, but this one is a fine example of the compact policer. M-G-M was downsizing their budgets at the time and trying their hand at different types of films--which provided the perfect opportunity for matinée idols like Johnson to stretch their acting muscles. The results here are not exactly noir, but more from an overtly-ordinary, overtly-jaded mold, with everyday people going about their business and getting the job done. If it isn't exciting, at least it's highly competent. **1/2 from ****