Bureau of Missing Persons

Demoted to working in the "kindergarten" of the police department, tough cop Butch Saunders (Pat O'Brien) goes all soft at the center when a sweet blonde (Bette Davis) walks into the Bureau of Missing Persons looking for her missing husband. When it turns out her husband is both a murder victim and a bachelor -- and that the blonde is suspect #1, Butch comes up with a scheme to crack the case. This nifty B picture moves with the speed of a follow-that-cab! taxi as it careens from drama to mystery to comedy (How to track carrier pigeons carrying ransom money? Wing after the birds in a plane!). And it's a chance to see Davis shine in a programmer the year before her breakthrough performance in Of Human Bondage.

• comedy
• drama
• thriller