Week Sixty-Two
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| "Missing Witness" 1937 |
MOVIE NAME: MISSING WITNESS
STUDIO: WARNER BROTHERS PICTURES, INC.
PRODUCER: BRYAN FOY
DIRECTOR: JACK L. WARNER and HAL B. WALLIS
DATE: 1937
TYPE: CRIME, DRAMA
CAST:
JOHN LITEL as Inspector Robert Lane, DICK PURCELL as Bull Regan, JEAN DALE as Mary Norton , SHEILA BROMLEY as Gladys Wagner, BEN WELDON as Frank Wagner , WILLIAM HAADE as Emmett White, HARLAND TUCKER as Ward Sturgis , RAYMOND HATTON as Little Joe Macey , SONNY BUPP, as Little Boy
SOURCE: A F I, Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1940
STORY: When cafe owner Hartman refuses to pay graft to Little Joe Macey's gang, he is beaten up and his business destroyed. Policeman Bull Regan passes by while they are leaving and arrests them. Hartman refuses to identify them in court and the case is dismissed, and Hartman goes to jail for perjury. Special prosecutor Inspector Robert Lane calls for the city's businessmen to testify against the racketeers, but most are too afraid. Bull Regan is assigned to Lane's office and cautioned not to bully the witnesses. Bull is sure his methods are better. He questions Frank Wagner and his aggressive manner sends Frank to Lane's office with a complaint. Lane convinces him to testify and he identifies the gang from photos. Frank backs down in court, because his wife Gladys was threatened. Lane was prepared this time, showing a film of Frank identifying the Macey gang with the photos, thereby winning a conviction. Regan goes to the jail to offer Macey a deal to reveal the name of his boss. They are overheard and Macey is killed. Lane is furious, but gives Regan one more chance. Their break comes when Mary Norton with her belief that her boss Ward Sturgis, is the man behind the gangs. When they investigate her story of a shooting aboard Sturgis's yacht, they find no evidence and the books Mary claims would reveal Sturgis's participation are replaced with fakes. Later a body in the bay is identified as Sturgis and Mary is suspect. Regan is sent to arrest her, but doesn't and later when he returns to hear her story, she is missing. When some of her clothes are found on a ferry, she is believed to have killed herself. Regan does not believe this and announces her arrest, hoping this will lure her out of hiding. The ruse works and she is captured. She tells Regan that Sturgis is not dead and that the body was that of a co-worker. Regan finds him at a hotel packing to leave and takes him into the office where Lane tricks him into confessing. The way is now cleared for a romance between Mary and Regan.
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