Scene of the Crime

L-A cop Conovan (Van Johnson) chasing a lead, explains to wife Gloria (Arlene Dahl) then, hardly noticing one performer (Jean Carter) and not revealing himself, earns some time with stripper Lili (Gloria DeHaven, in a role evoking the famous Burlesque entertainer Lili St. Cyr), in MGM’s Scene Of The Crime, 1949.

Opening with a straight-up murder, characters not identified (G. Pat Collins plays the victim whom, we’ll learn, is a plainclothes cop), we then meet cover-girl Gloria (Arlene Dahl) and her husband, cop Mike Conovan (Van Johnson), about to celebrate their anniversary, in the rare MGM-Noir, Scene Of The Crime, 1949.

First with a clever riff on their going-out evening routine, L-A cop Mike Conover (Van Johnson) and his fashion model wife Gloria (Arlene Dahl) are surprised by informant Sleeper (TCM friend and favorite Norman Lloyd), with dope on a series of robberies of bookmakers, in MGM’s Scene Of The Crime, 1949.

Three L-A cops (Van Johnson as Mike Conovan, with John McIntire and Tom Drake) investigating a colleague’s murder have followed the car that just picked up a suspect they were watching, to learn that he’s been grabbed by syndicate crook “Umpire” (Tom Powers), looking to set up a larger operation, in Scene Of The Crime, 1949.

Driving around L-A beginning their investigation of a the murder of a fellow plainclothes cop, Van Johnson as Conovan, John McIntire as his mentor-partner Piper, and Tom Drake as young “C.C.,” talk shop and notice lurking “Sleeper” (Norman Lloyd), early in Scene Of The Crime, 1949, from MGM and director Roy Rowland.

A detective (Van Johnson) tries to solve a policeman's murder at the Scene of the Crime (1949).