The Crimson Playgoer

If you are inclined toward mystery movies, you will probably like "From Headquarters." The plot is a complicated but pretty plausible one. It includes plenty of perplexing moments and a noteworthy collection of safecrackers, blackmailers, and dope addicts.

George Brent, as Lieutenant Stevens, does a convincing job in his usual smooth manner. Margaret Lindsay, playing the part of the show girl, Lou Winters, supplies the love interest. The two have a strong affection for one another. When a Broadway playboy is discovered murdered the morning after a quarrel in his apartment, the police investigation reveals that she was the cause of the said quarrel. Suspicion falls on both her and her brother.

Lieutenant Stevens, of course, is in charge of the case. Complications set in. But everything ends up in a very satisfactory manner.

Robert Barrat, as Anderzian the Armenian blackmailer, is appropriately slick and villainish; while Eugene Pallette does a good job in the role of Sergeant Boggs, jumping at conclusions, trying to pin the murder on the first person at hand, using third degree methods, etc.

If you happen to be addicted to shots showing laboratory equipment, "From Headquarters" should be a paradise for you, as there is a perfectly fiendish collection of microscopes, test tubes, gun testers, and so forth.

"Jimmy and Sally," the other attraction at the Fenway is a pleasing but rather unimportant bit of the usual James Dunn whimsey-whamsey somewhat decorated by the presence of Claire Trevor.