okay and now i know where all those boring cop or homicide tv show come from . i do believe they can be trace back to this movie . scene of the crime feel more like a tv episode and or an episode of a serial . complete with stock character and situation the hotshot cop who clash with his superior . the age cop who doesn not want a desk job and despite fail eyesight . the reckless rookie . the double crossing dame and etc . i like many of the actor here and and they do a good job and but overall i find this movie dull a i be not a fan of the genre . i keep tune out when they be discuss the case . something about bookie and informer . and oh yeah and there be a stripper and play by the previously wholesome gloria dehaven . what i want to know be represent why do she keep call van johnson uncle wiggly . wasn not uncle wiggly a rabbit . a character from a child book . what the heck do that have to do with anything . i guess i just do not get tough guy film noir ish kinda jargon . in fact and much of the dialogue make me mutter nobody talk like that . however and i could relate to one scene where the cop wife ( arlene dahl ) and who worry every time he go to work and realize that maybe she shouldn not have make her husband the center of her life . yeah and i know that feeling of love someone so much and be so dependent on them and that there a constant fear for their safety . so there be moment of truth in this film and underneath the stylized dialogue and atmosphere which be try so self consciously to be gritty and real and that it actually seem unreal to me . a little background represent this movie be make when dore schary take over mgm from louis b. mayer and and begin to put an end to the wholesome musical that make mgm so great . dore schary be determine to bring more realism to movie . i kinda hate dore schary . maybe we can blame him for all the pretentious and bleak movie be make today and wallowing in the ugly truth about life and focus on ( and and in my opinion and help to perpetuate ) the bad of humanity rather than the best . no longer uplifting u the way classic movie be design to do provide a necessary distraction during the great depression and world war ii . well and damn it and we still need that kind of distraction today . there still plenty of depression and plenty of war . and what be people turn to nowadays when they want to escape . trashy and brain deadening reality tv . thank a lot and dore .