Officer Thirteen (1932)

Lovely Lila Lee is the top-billed female, but she is generally upstaged by pert Frances Rich, who is given a juicier, if smaller, part.Both deserved a long and well-paid career. Alas, today they are unknown.Monte Blue had a very long career, though he too is not very well known today. He had looks and talent and did keep busy as long as he wanted.Mickey McGuire didn't exactly disappear: He became Mickey Rooney, one of the biggest stars of the century. Deservedly. Here, as a child, he was probably the best actor on the set. Until he got just a few years older, he was controlled and in control, always perfectly under-stated and perfectly believable.Alas, later, he needed firmer directorial hands than he usually got and he was too often over the top.Again, here he was perfect, one of the finest actors in motion picture history.He had a partner in the child part of the story, Jackie Searle. Young Mr. Searle was another extraordinary actor, but one who never reached the heights he also deserved.They and a generally very good cast had a slow-moving story that still keeps one's attention in a taut drama that seems about to let the bad guys win, as is so often true in real life."Officer Thirteen," or "Officer 13," is a low-budget but more than adequate entertainment, one I can recommend, even in the not-so-hot print at YouTube.It might have more historical than entertainment value, but it does have both.

Very creaky film about two motorcycle cops and best chums. While chasing down a speeding car one day, one of the cops is purposely knocked over an embankment that ends up being a hit and run murder case when the officer dies. His pal, "officer 13" Tom Burke (played by Monte Blue), chases down the car as it speeds away from the accident and arrests the driver, a gambler. Unfortunately, they can't get a conviction for the gambler, because his passenger in the car that day, Miss Dane (Lila Lee), commits perjury during the court trial saying it was all an accident. When Burke gets angry during the proceedings he is punished by being given officer duties in "the sticks". Interesting to see some of my silent era favorite actors in this, but as a whole, the film is very weak. There are two different scenes involving vehicles running off the road and the filming of theses scenes is pretty poorly done, not making it convincing enough that there was even a collision involved. It is fun to watch some of the scenes though, filmed on the sunny streets of early 1930's Hollywood. Lila Lee looks pretty and her acting is fine, but while I like Monte Blue a lot in his silent era films, his acting in this is just not up to snub. I enjoyed the performance of Frances Rich as Lila Lee's gal pal Joan, wisecracking and always seems to be on the lookout for getting herself another cocktail. A very young Mickey Rooney pretty much steals the show in this as the dead officer's grieving son.

Officer 13 is a gem of a picture. Filmed for the most part on location in Los Angeles in 1933 it gives a nice historical sense to the film being able to see some old Hollywood locations. The cast is good, and it has a good and believable plot. A motorcycle policeman is killed when he is run off the road by a rich and corrupt playboy. In the car with the playboy at the time of the policeman's murder is Lila Lee who is also the daughter of a high profile judge. In the police inquest Lee testifies that the officers death was an accident. Only later when Lee meets the officers young son does she recant and say that his death was murder.The film is very well done, and is in the public domain. The DVD version (put out by Alpha Video) has wonderful sound and a great picture quality.

Tom Burke and Sandy Malone are two best friends working as motorcycle traffic cops in California, living with Sandy's mother, his son Buddy, and Buddy's friend Sammy. Sandy is killed in a hit and run accident, caused by Blake, a notorious member of a gambling syndicate. The key witness in the murder trial is Doris Dane, Blake's passenger in the car, who tells Tom that Blake deliberately hit Sandy, but testifies in an affidavit that it was an accident. Tom objects to the procedure and is demoted to a beat in the sticks. Doris feels guilty of her actions and confesses to the police chief the true events of the murder, even though it will mean a perjury conviction for her. The chief won't reopen the Malone case since it will expose the police idleness in the murder trial, and Tom then turns in his badge saying he will go gunning after Blake. The chief, knowing his job will be taken away from his shortly in wake of these events, agrees to help him go after Burke. The film seems like an elongated version of the MGM Crime Does Not Pay series, but with less emotional impact, primarily since director Melford must have thought melodrama was still en vogue. Blue doesn't make a believable transition from happy go lucky cop to vengeful officer that convincingly, while the villains aren't that slimy enough. The film is still an interesting look at a film interpretation of corruption in high places. Rating, 6.