By Violet LeVoit
Miss Pinkerton
Brief Synopsis
A private duty nurse gets herself mixed up in a murder investigation.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Lloyd Bacon
Director
Joan Blondell
Miss Adams
George Brent
Patten
Ruth Hall
Paula Brent
John Wray
Hugo
Elizabeth Patterson
Aunt Julia Mitchell
Film Details
Genre
Suspense/Mystery
Comedy
Crime
Release Date
Jul
30,
1932
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
First National Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
First National Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Miss Pinkerton: Adventures of a Nurse Detective by Mary Roberts Rinehart (New York, 1932).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 6m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Synopsis
Nurse Adams is sent to the Mitchell house to care for Julia Mitchell, who is in shock after discovering the body of her nephew, Herbert Wynne. Her supervisor tells her that she will be working undercover for the police, who suspect that Wynne was murdered. Police inspector Patten, the man in charge of the case, secretly tells Adams that Wynne was killed by someone he knew. Later, when he learns that Wynne recently took out a life insurance policy, Patten changes his mind and decides that Wynne committed suicide. Patten suspects that Wynne shot himself through a newspaper so as not to leave powder burns, and asks Adams to look for the newspaper. While she is searching the house, Adams meets Paula Brent, who says that she was Wynne's fiancée. Paula believes that someone in the family killed Wynne for the insurance money, but at the inquest, Wynne's death is declared accidental. Meanwhile, Adams sees a mysterious stranger creeping around, who grabs her and locks her in a closet. Adams's screams lead the family to summon the police, who find Charles Elliott holding a newspaper with a bullet hole in it. They arrest Charles even though Adams is sure he did not kill Wynne. Julia is very distressed when she hears about the arrest and summons her lawyer Arthur Glenn. Outside the room, Paula begs Adams to let her search Wynne's room to clear Charles. While they are talking, Glenn asks Adams and his stenographer Florence Lenz to witness Julia's signature on a statement which they do not read. Then Dr. Stewart gives Julia a shot for her heart. Moments later, Julia dies because someone substituted arsenic for the amyl nitrate, but before she learns of the death, Adams washes the hypodermic which causes the doctor to report her to the police. Paula then is found with a marriage license revealing her secret marriage to Wynne. This revelation seems to give Charles a motive, so Patten questions him again and Charles admits that he and Paula are in love. According to Charles, on the night of the murder, he was trying to discourage Wynne from bothering Paula, when he heard someone coming up the stairs and climbed out the window. While Charles is telling his story, the police find Hugo, the butler, has been drugged. Hugo demands that they question Florence. When they do, the police learn that Glenn arranged a plan to cheat the insurance company. Wynne was supposed to marry Paula, fake a suicide and disappear so he and Paula could collect the money. Instead Wynne refused to disappear, and so Glenn murdered him. Glenn later killed Julia to prevent her from revealing that she hid the paper through which the shots had been fired in order to collect Wynne's life insurance. Julia thought that Adams and Florence were witnessing her signature on a confession, but Glenn substituted a blank piece of paper and destroyed the confession. Now that the case is solved, Patten invites Adams to accompany him on a new case, but she just wants to return to the peace of the hospital.
Director
Lloyd Bacon
Director
Cast
Joan Blondell
Miss Adams
George Brent
Patten
Ruth Hall
Paula Brent
John Wray
Hugo
Elizabeth Patterson
Aunt Julia Mitchell
C. Henry Gordon
Dr. Stewart
Holmes Herbert
Arthur Glenn
Mary Doran
Florence Lenz
Blanche Frederici
Mary
Mae Madison
Nurse
Allan Lane
Herbert Wynne
Nigel De Brulier
The coroner
Eulalie Jensen
Miss Gibbons
Donald Dilloway
Charles Elliott
Treva Lawler
Nurse
Luana Walters
Nurse
Lucien Littlefield
Henderson
Crew
Niven Busch
Adaptation
Ray Curtiss
Editing
Leo F. Forbstein
Vitaphone Orch Conductor
C. Dave Forrest
Sound
Kenneth Green
2nd Camera
Lillie Hayward
Adaptation
Barney Mcgill
Photography
Jack Okey
Art Director
Robert Tasker
Additional Dialogue
Homer Van Pelt
Still Photographer
William Whitley
Assistant Camera
Film Details
Genre
Suspense/Mystery
Comedy
Crime
Release Date
Jul
30,
1932
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
First National Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
First National Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Miss Pinkerton: Adventures of a Nurse Detective by Mary Roberts Rinehart (New York, 1932).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 6m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Articles
Miss Pinkerton
Harlow may have been the blonde sex goddess of the 1930s, but Joan Blondell was the girl next door for Depression tough times -- canny and no-guff like the dog-eat-dog era demanded, but still sparkly with accessible charm. She had been named a WAMPAS Baby Star and had been steady employment at Warner Brothers in pictures like The Public Enemy (1931), but all that progress came at a stiff, work-around-the-clock price. One of twenty-one (!) pictures she shot between 1931 and 1932, here she's a nosy nurse (Blondell) who gets to the bottom of a murder-for-hire plot after being assigned to care for the victim's surviving aunt (Elizabeth Patterson). Blondell's schedule at Warner Brothers was so exhausting that, after one take that required her to lay down on a cot and feign sleep, she had to be shaken awake by crew members. But soon all that work would pay off. After making Three On A Match (1932) with Ann Dvorak and Bette Davis, she'd soon cement her place in Hollywood history with Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933).
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Miss Pinkerton
Harlow may have been the blonde sex goddess of the 1930s, but Joan Blondell was the girl next door for Depression tough times -- canny and no-guff like the dog-eat-dog era demanded, but still sparkly with accessible charm. She had been named a WAMPAS Baby Star and had been steady employment at Warner Brothers in pictures like The Public Enemy (1931), but all that progress came at a stiff, work-around-the-clock price. One of twenty-one (!) pictures she shot between 1931 and 1932, here she's a nosy nurse (Blondell) who gets to the bottom of a murder-for-hire plot after being assigned to care for the victim's surviving aunt (Elizabeth Patterson). Blondell's schedule at Warner Brothers was so exhausting that, after one take that required her to lay down on a cot and feign sleep, she had to be shaken awake by crew members. But soon all that work would pay off. After making Three On A Match (1932) with Ann Dvorak and Bette Davis, she'd soon cement her place in Hollywood history with Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933).
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The novel was first published as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post (2 January-13 February 1932). Film Daily notes that Donald Dilloway replaced Norman Foster in the cast. The novel was also the basis for the 1941 Warner Bros. film The Nurse's Secret, which was directed by Noel Smith and starred Lee Patrick and Regis Toomey.
