CONFIDENTIAL

US, 1935, 65 minutes, Black-and-white.
Donald Cook, Evalyn Knapp, Warren Hymer, J.Carroll Naish, Herbert Rawlinson.
Directed by Edward L.Cahn.

While Confidential is certainly a film of its time, small budget, supporting feature of the mid 1930s, it is not a bad example of this kind of gangster thriller of the period.

There are racketeers in the city, a range of thugs, the opening with showing their activities and their evading the law and investigations. The reporter, stirred up, decides to go undercover – not only to capture the thugs but also to find out who is the Mr Big behind everything.

Donald Cook is the hero, going undercover, encountering the bookkeeper for the racketeers, a sympathetic performance by Evalyn Knapp. The undercover man is attracted to her but ultimately, she is very judgemental about his position, assuming the worst about him. Also in the group is Warren Hymer, one of those dumb characters that pervade this genre of film, but more sympathetic than most, even in his dumbwittedness. J Carroll Naish is the tough man, trying to remember where he saw the other undercover man, suspicious of him.

There is also a subplot with the son of a wealthy businessman, friend of the undercover agent, but a drinker and making a mess of his life, despite the support of his father.

Ultimately, of course, there is a big confrontation, especially with Nation who is suspicious of the wealthy drunken young man and kills him. When he learns who the young man’s father is, it is the collapse of everything because the father, the wealthy businessman, is the Mr Big.

An effective drama in its 1935 way.