Bureau of Missing Persons

Films in Focus

By Ed Garea

Bureau of Missing Persons (WB, 1933) – Director: Roy Del Ruth. Writers: Robert Presnell Sr. (s/p). John H. Ayers & Carol Bird. John H. Ayers (book, Missing Men). Stars: Bette Davis, Pat O’Brien, Lewis Stone, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert, Alan Dinehart, Marjorie Gateson, Tad Alexander, Noel Francis, Wallis Clark, Adrian Morris, Clay Clement, Hobart Cavanaugh & Henry Kolker. B&W, 73 minutes.

All around the world thousands of persons disappear every day. New York City alone reported over 27,000 missing every year. Why people drop from sight, where they go, and how they are found is the problem of a special and little known department of the police. THE BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS.

Many incidents in this picture are taken from the actual case in police records.

With an opening scroll like that we think we’re in for a thrilling ride. But alas, though its entertaining, thanks mainly to an energetic cast, Bureau of Missing Persons is another run-of-the-mill programmer churned out in the Warner Brothers assembly line.

And lest we think we’re in for some heavy melodrama, director Del Ruth cures us of that assumption almost right off the bat, mixing the dramatic elements with bits of slapstick farce to make us take a more relaxed view of the goings-on.

The film is episodic, based on Ayers’ book detailing the comings and goings of citizens filing reports with New York City's Bureau of Missing Persons with several cases under investigation simultaneously. For the movie, the department, headed by Captain Webb (Stone) has the main story centered around the character of Det. Butch Saunders (O’Brien), who has been transferred from Robbery Division because of his strong-arm tactics. Although Butch thinks this is a kindergarten cops division where he can blend in right away, Webb cautions him to sit and learn from the others. Butch is something of a missing person himself, but ex-wife Belle (Farrell) is always able to track him down for money.

After watching his co-workers and settling in to the routine, Webb gives Saunders the case of a missing musical prodigy. Observing the area where the young prodigy was last seen, Saunders notices something dodgy going on and eventually tracks his quarry down to a shed on top of a roof adjacent to the concert hall. Instead of bursting in and strong-arming the kid back to the station, Saunders develops a rapport with the youngster, sharing experiences. He learns that the young man’s name is Caesar Paul (Alexander) and that he ran away from his stage parents to live a normal life, surrounded by the young friends he’s made in the neighborhood. Saunders proceeds slowly, building trust to the point where young Paul allows him to bring him back to his parents, who are waiting at the station. 

We also see other cases handled by detectives Joe Musik (Jenkins) and Hank Slade (Herbert), aided by their secretary/receptionist “Pete” (Donnelly). They range from a missing banker (Clement) from Pennsylvania who has run away from his wife and kids and is found shacked up with a floozy in a cheap apartment, to a woman who comes to see Captain Webb, telling him her husband has run away with the cook. Webb promises to find the husband as soon as possible, but the woman retorts that it’s the cook she wants found. The police also deal with an old woman looking for her missing daughter. In reality her daughter has turned to a life of crime, and they lie to spare the old woman’s feelings. Also along the way, we learn that some disappearances arise from domestic disputes, while others are publicity stunts.

In one case, Detective Conlin (Morris) is told to follow carrier pigeons to locate a kidnapping victim, while a case that has Slade climbing the walls concerns the search for the missing Gwendolyn Harris, reported missing by her husband long ago.

Right after Butch makes another weekly payment to Belle, a winsome blonde approaches the desk. Her name is Norma Roberts (Davis) and she’s looking for her husband, Therme (Dinehart). Butch is entranced by Norma and seeks permission from Webb to work her case. But her description of her husband is more than a little vague (she gives Butch a picture of her husband in costume). Webb calls Butch into his office and tells him that Norma is actually wanted for the murder of a banker named Therme Roberts. Butch tracks Norma down, and accompanied by policemen, enters her apartment. He finds her hiding in the closest. She tells him all is not as it appears and as he doesn’t believe the official story, it’s easy for Norma to talk him out of taking her in. He tells her to stay there and he’ll return later. But when he does, she’s nowhere to be found. 

Butch is later informed that her handbag and some of her clothes were found on the dock, but Butch doesn’t figure her for a suicide. He has an idea how to smoke her out, he tells Webb. He’ll stage a fake funeral. Just as he planned, Norma can’t resist the bait, and attends. But Therme also shows up. Norma chases after him, followed by Butch.

Norma tells Butch she was Roberts' private secretary. She discovered that he had an mentally disturbed twin brother. Therme killed his brother, making it look like he himself was dead in order to escape embezzlement charges. Roberts denies her accusations, but Butch takes both down to the Bureau. Brought into Webb’s office, Therme continues to deny everything, but Webb makes clever use of a photo to trick him into admitting the truth and Norma is cleared. 

Hank Slade finally solves his cold case when Mr. Harris (Cavanaugh) arrives at the station house to ask if there’s been any progress in finding his wife. When he spots Pete the receptionist, he thanks Pete for finding her. Slade becomes so angry he breaks a wooden chair into pieces and chases his receptionist with a leg of the chair in his hand.

As Norma stands by chatting with Butch, another man comes in looking for his missing wife. It’s at just that moment that Belle comes in looking for her payoff. The man points to Belle and says that the woman who ran out on him over a year ago. Butch drags Belle into the file room and gives her a good spanking. Now that he discovers that Belle was never divorced from her first husband, he and Norma are free to be with each other. 

Afterwords

According to John M. Miller in his essay on the movie for TCM, the film was reissued in 1936 by Warner Bros. with a slight change in the credits: as featured player Bette Davis was now the studio's major female draw, the film's opening titles were reconfigured to place her in the lead. In reality, Davis does not appear until 30 minutes into the film.

Neither Pat O’Brien nor Bette Davis regarded this as one of their better efforts. Davis thought it a comedown after her starring role in Ex-Lady, and O’Brien saw it as just another quickly filmed programmer. The chemistry between them, however, was pretty good, especially in their scene in a diner, where they are discussing Norma’s situation (watch them passing condiments to other diners at the counter). Bette Davis was happy to work again with Pat O’Brien, with whom she acted in Hell's House (1932). She had become good friends with O'Brien and his wife Eloise, but she had no use for this picture. Author Lawrence J. Quirk quotes O’Brien in an interview stating that her lack of star billing “galled her no end.” Several times during the shoot she told her co-star that,”This picture is lousy as hell.” Another thing that O’Brien remembered galling Davis was when “some stupid fan magazine published an item that said she and I were 'that way' about each other and we were both married, and moreover, thought of each other only as friends!” 

Quirk also wrote that Davis was not happy with the way cinematographer Barney McGill photographed the film, making her look like two different people in mismatched shots.

Director Del Ruth does an excellent job, including the use of some interesting swish-pans to keep the movie speeding along; even with all the economy imposed on him. It moves so fast that its 73 minute running time goes by almost before we notice it. The performances are uniformly excellent, with Stone, borrowed from MGM, authoritative as Captain Webb. Alan Jenkins shines in a chance at a serious role, as does Hugh Herbert, who leaves his annoying “Hoo, hoo, hoo” act behind. But it’s Glenda Farrell who leaves her mark on us as greedy ex-wife Belle, who announces her entry into the office with a loud, “OH, BUTCHY WUTCHY! Once we hear that she has our rapt attention. Also look for Charles Sellon as the funeral parlor director. He was later the hysterically funny blind Mr. Muckle in W.C. Fields’ classic It’s a Gift.

The ending, however, makes us rather doubt the claims of the opening crawl, which state that “Many incidents in this picture are taken from actual cases in police records.”

To sum up, Bureau of Missing Persons, it's a run-of-the-mill programmer, but has enough going for it to keep viewers watching, though its scenes of violence towards women are enough to make one cringe. At times, it almost plays like a Pre-Code Police Squad.