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Homicide Bureau

  • 1939
  • Approved
  • 58m
IMDb RATING
5.6/10
259
YOUR RATING
Rita Hayworth, Bruce Cabot, Richard Fiske, Marc Lawrence, and Robert Paige in Homicide Bureau (1939)
ActionCrimeDramaMystery

After being criticized by the Citizens' League for his inability to cope with a crime wave, Police Captain Haines orders his men in the Homicide Bureau to clean up all their cases, but witho... Read allAfter being criticized by the Citizens' League for his inability to cope with a crime wave, Police Captain Haines orders his men in the Homicide Bureau to clean up all their cases, but without violating the constitutional rights of any suspect. Detective Jim Logan is ordered to m... Read allAfter being criticized by the Citizens' League for his inability to cope with a crime wave, Police Captain Haines orders his men in the Homicide Bureau to clean up all their cases, but without violating the constitutional rights of any suspect. Detective Jim Logan is ordered to meet the incoming new-head of the Police Department lab and internal affairs, J.G. Bliss, a... Read all

  • Director
    • Charles C. Coleman
  • Writer
    • Earle Snell
  • Stars
    • Bruce Cabot
    • Rita Hayworth
    • Marc Lawrence
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.6/10
    259
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Charles C. Coleman
    • Writer
      • Earle Snell
    • Stars
      • Bruce Cabot
      • Rita Hayworth
      • Marc Lawrence
    • 13User reviews
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos10

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    Top cast35

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    Bruce Cabot
    Bruce Cabot
    • Lieutenant Jim Logan
    Rita Hayworth
    Rita Hayworth
    • J.G. Bliss
    Marc Lawrence
    Marc Lawrence
    • Chuck Brown
    Richard Fiske
    Richard Fiske
    • Hank
    Moroni Olsen
    Moroni Olsen
    • Capt. Haines
    Norman Willis
    Norman Willis
    • Briggs
    Gene Morgan
    Gene Morgan
    • Blake
    Robert Paige
    Robert Paige
    • Thurston
    Lee Prather
    • Jamison
    Eddie Fetherston
    • Specks
    Stanley Andrews
    Stanley Andrews
    • Police Commissioner
    Hooper Atchley
    Hooper Atchley
    • Curtis - Crime Lab Technician
    • (uncredited)
    Harry Bernard
    Harry Bernard
    • Joe
    • (uncredited)
    Beatrice Blinn
    Beatrice Blinn
    • Secretary
    • (uncredited)
    Stanley Brown
    Stanley Brown
    • Police Photographer
    • (uncredited)
    Georgie Cooper
    • Citizen League Member
    • (uncredited)
    Nell Craig
    Nell Craig
    • Citizen League Member
    • (uncredited)
    Beatrice Curtis
    • Stewardess
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Charles C. Coleman
    • Writer
      • Earle Snell
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews13

    5.6259
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    Featured reviews

    6arthur_tafero

    Solid, Efficient B Movie - Homicide Bureau

    Starring Rita Hayworth before she got big, and Bruce Cabot of King Kong fame. Cabot plays a hit'em first and ask questions later cop, and Rita Hayworth.....are you ready for this? Plays a Crime Scene Investigation SCIENTIST. She pulls it off, however.

    Cabot is after a gang of clever thieves who ship junk along with some sensitive items to foreign powers (not mentioned, but probably the Axis powers), The plot is not the usual cops and robbers, which makes it a bit more interesting that the usual B movie fare.

    The movie follows a path of crime that was not usually featured in most B films. Be sure to catch this one, and see how a decent film can be made in just under one hour. That could never happen in today's studios.
    HarlowMGM

    Rita Hayworth as the World's Youngest and Most Beautiful Forensic Expert in a Sensational Cop Melodrama

    HOMICIDE BUREAU is a nifty little police "B" melodrama from 1939 of interest mainly for the very beautiful (and very young, age 20) Rita Hayworth in the female lead as a forensics expert who replaces a police department's veteran (aged 60 and forced into mandatory retirement!). Across town, ex-felon Marc Lawrence trails a man into a pool hall and shoots him down in the presumably empty hall. The bartender happens onto the scene and (in an astonishingly incredible scene) the ex-con (gun still in his hand) is startled and darts away - the bartender then spots the murder victim's gun (he had been beaten to the draw) picks it up and chases out into the street where he spots the murderer driving away and then begins to shoot up his car but the man gets away. He is later able to identify the man but the man insists he has gone straight and is now a junk dealer and when his gang members replace the windshield with a new, broken windshield and plant a gun in the car that was not the murder weapon, he is released much to "copper" Bruce Cabot's disgust. The man is in fact in the salvage business - but is part of a ring that is selling black market scrap metal to foreign countries to make munitions. There are two more murders, close calls for several cops including the chief, and lots of action before a predictable finale in this 58-minute little pistol with a hard-line "once a crook, always a crook" mentality.

    Rita is absolutely gorgeous and to her credit, does suggest a woman with the intellect to handle her position although her role is quite secondary. I've never been particularly impressed with Bruce Cabot before but he is sensational here as a cop so hard he makes many more famous film noir tough-guy movie policemen seem like milquetoast. Marc Lawrence is very good too but the movie is stolen by Norman Willis as the gang leader. Willis, looking like a tougher Ricardo Cortez and sounding like a scarier Edward G. Robinson, played a ton of henchmen in films during this era (usually in small roles) but I don't think he ever had such a major menacing role to rival his gang leader/businessman here. I'm not quite sure who Richard Fiske plays in this movie, a cop or a crook, his role is quite small despite his billing, but he later became a real-life WWII hero, dying in action in 1944. This Columbia "B" may be long forgotten but it's a remarkably successful venture into Warner Bros. mean streets territory.
    Michael_Elliott

    Mildly Entertaining

    Homicide Bureau (1939)

    ** 1/2 (out of 4)

    Fun and fast paced Columbia 'B' film has Bruce Cabot playing a homicide detective who wants to use force to get confessions from some gangsters trying to take the city over. If you're a fan of 'B' films then you should get a kick out of this one since there's never a dull moment within its 57-minute running time. There's plenty of fast action as well as a nice shoot out at the end that makes this one a tad bit better than most in its field. Cabot is always worth watching and he does a nice job here. Rita Hayworth has a small supporting role as a forensic expert.
    7orlabrown

    Possibly the original Criminal Forensics movie

    One thing that surprised me in this film was the amount of scientific documentation it exhibits. A female scientist is assigned to the police department in a forensics position. I was also surprised at how little controversy was shown about that fact. But during the course of the movie, comparison of materials (from a single source or not), ballistics evidence, weapon edge evidence and more are all showcased. Not quite a commercial for police as scientific marvels, seeing as how another part of the main story involves whether or not police ought to be able to rough up criminals or not, but considering how far before the Miranda ruling this movie was made, it now comes across as an interesting look at the state of forensics in the late 1930s. For true devotees of The New Detectives (and maybe CSI, though it has little to do with crime scenes per se), this is certainly an interesting title.
    4bkoganbing

    Science has its place

    Homicide Bureau casts Rita Hayworth in a rather colorless role of a police forensic scientist. She's an efficient worker and when all's said and done proves rather valuable in stopping a smuggling gang headed by Norman Willis.

    Willis is a clever guy and makes a monkey out of Detetive Bruce Cabot when he arrests henchman Marc Lawrence for murder. Cabot is a detective of the old school and would have been a role model for Dirty Harry.

    The story has a lot of holes in it and I suspect the cutting room floor got a lot of shot and destroyed footage. Rita is given so little to do here and she really has no chemistry with Cabot.

    This one is for fans of the leads.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Quotes

      Lieutenant Jim Logan: [referring to his suspect] Oh, please, Commissioner, let me line that mug up against the wall for just about two minutes. I know it looks like all that other evidence is against me, but he's guilty just as sure as you're a foot high.

      Lieutenant Jim Logan: [brandishing his fist] And all I need to prove it is that!

    • Connections
      Featured in Hollywood and the Stars: The Odyssey of Rita Hayworth (1964)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 5, 1939 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Investigação Criminal
    • Production company
      • Columbia Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      58 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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