Midnight Phantom

Okay so the title might make you think this was a long lost "old dark house" thriller complete with secret doors, cobwebby passageways and a hooded killer sneaking around. Sorry! This is a plain crime drama but it is so well constructed you will find yourself enjoying it.
Police Inspector James Sullivan (James Farley) is an old school Irish cop who has risen to the highest rank. The cops in his precinct are all either too lazy to make arrests or are getting bribes from the local gangsters so Sullivan makes it known there will be replacements made unless performances improve.
Sullivan's daughter (Claudia Dell) is engaged to a young detective (Lloyd Hughes); but when Lloyd's dishonest brother is killed during a robbery attempt Sullivan is so shocked he demands that Lloyd break the engagement. Soon after that Inspector Sullivan is found murdered!
Well okay, so Lloyd is the most obvious suspect but remember there were a lot of cops in that precinct who wanted to see the man dead so there is really no shortage of suspects. A noted criminologist (Reginald Denny) declares he will find the killer . . . but can he?
Lloyd Hughes is probably best remembered as Malone the reporter from THE LOST WORLD (1925). Claudia Dell seemed to be in a lot of Poverty Row thrillers and serials; you can spot her under a blonde wig in the infamous 1935 serial THE LOST CITY. Barbara Bedford appeared opposite Lon Chaney in MOCKERY (1927) and Bela Lugosi in THE DEATH KISS (1933). Watch closely for former Mack Sennett regular Al St. John as a radio dispatcher. He soon became known as "Fuzzy" St. John and costarred in dozens of B-westerns with Buster Crabbe, Rex Allen and many others.
So put all hopes of seeing ghosts and phantoms out of your mind before this movie starts and you will have a lot of fun watching it and figuring out "Who done it?"