Cosmo Jones In Crime Smasher (DVD)

Crime Wave Rips City screams newspaper headlines as two rival gangs carry out abductions, payoffs and random shootings on the dark streets of the metropolis. The police commissioner demands results from short-tempered Police Chief Murphy. Correspondence school sleuth Cosmo Jones is only too eager to help. Unfortunately, the high-strung flatfoot wants no part of the would-be detective and his partner Eustace. After Sgt. Pat Flanagan is demoted on a false charge of gunning down an innocent bystander, the amateur crime fighting duo spring into action to clear the policeman's name and solve a gangland kidnapping in the process.

Frank Graham recreates his original CBS radio role of amateur detective Cosmo Jones and receives good-natured support from comic masters Mantan Moreland and Edgar Kennedy. Moreland is best remembered for playing Charlie Chan's chauffeur in Monogram's popular detective series. Vaudeville and musical comedy vet Kennedy was the master of the 'slow burn' and appeared in many famous Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang shorts.

• mystery