Homicide Bureau (1939)

Police Captain Haines faces criticism from the Citizens' League due to his department's inability to handle a crime wave. He instructs the Homicide Bureau to solve all their cases within legal limits. Detective Jim Logan meets the new head of the Police Department lab and internal affairs, J.G. Bliss, but dislikes her approach towards criminals' rights. Jim investigates a murder case involving Chuck Brown, a criminal who tells his boss, Briggs, that their blackmailer has been killed. Briggs continues with his plans to export scrap metal to warlords, but Jim arrests Chuck and is forced by Bliss to release him due to insufficient evidence. In an effort to extract a confession from Chuck, Jim goes to his apartment and a scuffle results in Chuck falling through a window. The outraged Citizens' League presses charges against Jim, and he is demoted. However, Jim continues to probe the case and uncovers Chuck's connection with a junk dealer's racket. The honest junk dealer Jamison is murdered for refusing to ship scrap metal abroad for war purposes, and an eyewitness is killed in a suspected hit-and-run.