Hilda Adams (Joan Blondell) is a nurse at the Polyclinic Hospital. She is bored with her job. She is called into the office of her superintendent, Miss Gibbons (Eulalie Jensen). Hilda is given an assignment to take care of an elderly woman, Juliet Mitchell (Elizabeth Patterson), and that it is part of a police matter. Hilda jumps at the idea of being part of a police procedure. She is told to report to Police Inspector Patten (George Brent) at the Mitchell estate.
When she arrives at the estate, she learns that Ms. Mitchell has a heart condition and is in shock from finding the body of her nephew, Herbert. At first blush it appears that the young man either committed suicide or accidentally shot himself while cleaning his gun. Inspector Patten thinks it’s really murder and tells Hilda to keep her eyes open and report to him everything that happens in the house. He amusingly calls her Miss Pinkerton.
Hilda jumps into her job of snooping with gusto, but when there is another murder, she finds her job of amateur sleuth a little more dangerous than she expected.
“Miss Pinkerton” was released in 1932 and was directed by Lloyd Bacon. It is a pre-code mystery thriller with comedic undertones. The film is based on the novel “Miss Pinkerton” by Mary Roberts Rinehart.
I hadn’t realized until just before I finished watching the film that it was based on a story by Rinehart. I had forgotten about her Hilda Adams series of books. Rinehart wrote five stories about the crime solving nurse. “Miss Pinkerton” was the third novel in the series. The original story was published in the Saturday Evening Post in serial form, in 1932.
The movie was pretty good and a lot of fun to watch. The plot was interesting but jam-packed making it just a little confusing at times. There are several characters that are added later in the film that add a little more muddle.
Joan Blondell is not one of my favorites, but she does a really good job here. She may not be what Ms. Rinehart had envisioned, but she adds a lot of pep to the story and makes the character her own. Brent was handsome but not all that charismatic making the romance between them a little forced. He’s not totally stiff but a few more smiles would have improved his appeal. The movie also sports some good character actors and a couple would be character actors at their start including bit parts by Walter Brennan and Lyle Talbot.