Shadow of the Law (AKA The Quarry)
Directed by Louis J. Gasnier
Written by John Farrow from a play by Max Martin and Jack A. Moroso
1930/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube
Detective Lt. Mike Kearney: Next time you want to get the truth from a woman, don’t send money – send a cop.
The always debonaire William Powell is the best thing about this creaky wrong man mystery. Pity he didn’t have better material.
John Nelson (Powell) is a wealthy man-about-town. He escorts a neighbor, Ethel Barry (Natalie Moorhead) to her apartment after a night out. When the two get there, an angry man is waiting. Nelson intervenes to defend Ethel and in the scuffle the man is knocked out of the window. Ethel disappears, taking Nelson’s self defense claim with her, and he is tried, convicted and sentenced to jail. Nelson spends the rest of the movie trying to clear his name.
Well. this one was a dud. I’ll always take a chance on William Powell, however.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ1SdfCxh3k
