Classic Film Guide

Secrets of the French Police (1932)

Produced by David O. Selznick, this obscure crime story has "horror flick" elements which make it a rather strange little film. It runs less than an hour but includes some rather interesting details as its most well-known actor, Frank Morgan playing a detective, tries to solve the case. It's set in Paris, well after the Russian Revolution, when the deposed aristocracy was trying to find the missing Anastasia and con artists were coming out of the woodwork with phony princesses. Overall, it's not a very good movie, though it does feature performances from a couple of actors (Rochelle Hudson and John Warburton, in only his second picture) who went on to have mildly successful careers, two who were already fairly well established from their work in silent pictures (Morgan and Lucien Prival), and George Ratoff, who ended up directing a couple of dozen films.

Petty thief Leon Renault (Warburton) is dating the beautiful Eugenie Dorian (Gwili Andre, didn't make many films and it's obvious why ... given her "abilities"), who attracts the attention of former Russian General Moloff (Ratoff) per her resemblance to Princess Anastasia, missing since the Revolution. She disappears and detective François St. Cyr (Morgan), who's been investigating several murders, is put on the case. He utilizes a microscope to analyze some ashes found at the scene which leads him to a café where some funny cigarettes are sold. Pretending to be drunk, he learns that Baron Lomzoi (Prival) just purchased some of that particular brand. With help from his staff, St. Cyr also assembles a wall-sized "picture" of Miss Dorian to assist them in locating her. Her father is played by Christian Rub, but Moloff takes care of him; Lomzoi is also later found dead. St. Cyr puts his agent K-31 (Hudson) undercover on the case and enlists the help of Renault, who only steals from foreigners, and not Frenchman.

Once under Moloff’s control, Eugenie is hypnotized in order to fool the Grand Duke, Maxim Romanoff (Arnold Korff) into thinking that she's the missing princess, Anastasia. The pacing and cinematography by Alfred Gilks (An American in Paris (1951)) will remind you of Universal’s horror films like Dracula (1931), making Ratoff appear much like Bela Lugosi. There's even a little bit of Frankenstein (1931) thrown in. None of the violence is shown, but K-31 is killed and then entombed in plaster, to look like a statue, by Moloff. Renault infiltrates the mansion and disrupts Moloff's hypnosis. Of course, St. Cyr eventually solves the case, which involves a really bizarre car crash, copied in later films using a mirror (this is quite a bit more elaborate, and unbelievable).