BEHIND GREEN LIGHTS

US, 1946, 64 minutes, Black and white.
William Gargan, Carole Landis, Richard Crane, Mary Anderson, John Ireland, Charles Russell, Roy Roberts, Mabel Paige, Don Beddoe, Charles Arnt.
Directed by Otto Brower.

Small-budget supporting feature of 1946, Behind Green Light is quite entertaining. It does have 20th Century Fox production values.

The action takes place over one night, life in a busy police station, with the complications of local political elections, promotions and appointments in the police department, and the ever present newspaper reporters.

The audience sees a young woman, Janet Bradley (Carole Landis) interviewing a private detective, pulling a gun on him. Later, a car slides down to the steps of the police station and a body, that of the private detective, who has been shot, is in the car.

The lieutenant in charge, Carson (William Gargan) is older, serious-minded, conscious of his high-minded police predecessors, with a newspaper proprietor putting pressure on him about his story and about the elections. John Ireland, who was to have a successful career, plays an associate of the lieutenant.

Actually, the screenplay, though only blasting an hour, is quite complicated, some interesting clues, twists, and an amusing interlude which seems initially extraneous but becomes part of the plot.

Involved in the investigation is the local coroner who has a big mouth and tells the story to all the journalists as well as to the editor. The police are also trying to contact the widow of the dead man, eventually doing so, the audience knowing that she is telling lies as is her now-fiance, her lawyer.

Janet Bradley is also brought into the police station (daughter of a local politician and hence open to blackmail and headlines). When her fingerprints are found on a glass in the house as well as the gun, she is detained. From the point of view of the audience, she does act somewhat suspiciously. It is different with the widow and her fiance who seem obvious suspects but then come to the police and tell the truth about what had happened, both of them trying to persuade the dead man for a divorce, the lawyer finding the dead body, not wanting to incriminate his fiancee, putting a bullet in the corpse who had died of poisoning and driving the car to the station.

In the meantime, the editor persuades the doctor to get rid of the body, even though it is discovered that he was poisoned. However, at the desk, a homeless man with delusions is put in a cell, escapes, finds a dead body to be taken to the crematorium, puts the body in a cupboard in the press room, and substitutes himself, thus escaping. At the end, he is also crucial to the action, his having returned to prison!

The doctor gets rid of the body by substituting a John Doe for the dead private detective and then is upset when the ambulance arrives at the crematorium – and no body.

There are some comic complications when a rookie reporter discovers the body in the cupboard and is trying to get the story to his editor, complications with the Brooklyn wanting to get the fur coat of another reporter.

And the persistently nagging old flower-seller becomes a crucial witness to identify the killer.

The murderer is not who we think it was and some information comes up at the end implicating him and he tries to make his escape.

In the meantime, lest the audience think it was not romantic, especially with William Gargan older than the usual hero, he is attracted to Janet Bradley and the press corps see them going out to an early breakfast!

Not bad of its kind.