The Vice Squad
Cast & Crew
John Cromwell
Paul Lukas
Kay Francis
Helen Johnson
William B. Davidson
Rockcliffe Fellowes
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When a member of the vice squad of the New York City police department demands the name of an ambassador's wife, who is in a parked car with military attaché Major Stephen Lucarno, she runs him over and flees. Detective-Sergeant Mather, a corrupt vice squad officer, arrives on the scene, and Lucarno, refusing to divulge the woman's name, is forced to work for him. At an embassy ball that night, Lucarno bids farewell to his fiancée, Alice Morrison, and drops out of society for two years while acting as Mather's aide. Mather frames dozens of innocent girls on vagrancy charges by sending Lucarno to their rooms and, after the girls, assuming Lucarno is a gentleman, invite him in, Mather accuses them of entertaining strange men. Lucarno's self-contempt is so great he takes to drink in Greenwich Village cafes, where he meets young writer Madeleine Hunt. After Lucarno protects her from being accosted, Madeleine begins to fall for him and, one night, saves him from suicide and escorts him home. There he passes out from starvation, and she nurses him back to health. When he wakes, he insists they part anonymously, but before she exits, Mather enters, makes a pass at her and insinuates that she is a loose woman. That night, while on assignment, Lucarno is sent by Mather to an address, unaware that Madeleine lives there. When he realizes what has happened, he tells Mather there is no evidence for arrest, but after Lucarno leaves, Mather arrests Madeleine. Meanwhile, Alice's brother Tony, a judge, sees Lucarno on the street and insists he spend the evening with Alice and him. Alice deduces that Lucarno works as a stool pigeon and asks Tom to give him a job so they can resume their life together. Finally realizing that Mather can be sent to prison as an accessory to the murder of a policeman, Lucarno tells Mather he's through working for him. Madeleine's bohemian friend Josie pleads with Lucarno to testify on Madeleine's behalf, and he does so against Alice's wishes. Tony is the judge for the case and is about to find Madeleine guilty when Lucarno steps forward and admits he was a stool pigeon for Mather, who then is arrested for perjury. True to her threat that she would have nothing to do with Lucarno if his former occupation were exposed, Alice walks out of court. Madeleine and Lucarno, realizing they are in love, take a taxi to "nowhere."
Director
John Cromwell
Cast
Paul Lukas
Kay Francis
Helen Johnson
William B. Davidson
Rockcliffe Fellowes
Esther Howard
Monte Carter
Juliette Compton
G. Pat Collins
Phil Tead
Davison Clark
Tom Wilson
James Durkin
William Arnold
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The opening narration for this film states: "This story attempts to show how Vice Squads, designed to make our communities more moral, have in many American cities done the very opposite. The methods of the old-fashioned Vice Squad must go! The great majority of policemen resent its ruthless treatment of women and girls, trapped by paid "stool pigeons" in situations which appear to justify their arrest." Reviews state that details of this film mimicked a recent vice squad investigation conducted in New York City.
