Robert Westland (Theodore von Eltz) has been sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and is on death row awaiting execution. While in prison he receives an anonymous letter from someone who says he is a witness to the murder and knows who is really responsible. The note says to contact Joe Petro and ask for M. G. Another inmate at the prison recommends that Robert contact attorney Charlie Frazee (Clarence Wilson) for help. With only six days left before he is executed, Robert meets with Charlie in the Warden’s (Selmer Jackson) office.
Charlie agrees to take the case and calls in detectives Bill Crane (Preston Foster) and Doc Williams (Frank Jenks) from New York. Bill calls together the witnesses from the original trial, Robert’s secretary, Miss Brentino (Astrid Allwyn), his accountant, Mr. Washington (Charles Murphy), his fiancé, Emily Lou Martin (Carol Hughes), and his partners, Mr. Woodbury (Russell Hicks) and Richard Bolston (George Meeker).
At Joe Petro’s restaurant they find out that M. G. represents Mannie Grant (Tom Quinn). Before they can talk to Mannie, he is murdered. Bill is approached by one of Robert’s partners, Mr. Washington, about some information concerning the murder but is killed by a hit and run driver before he can reveal anything. Then they find that the crime scene, the Westland apartment, has already been sublet to someone else.
Bill saunters through clues and confounds everyone, especially Doc, as he works his way through his investigation to find the killer.
“The Westland Case” was released in 1937 and was directed by Christy Cabanne. It is a low budget American mystery film. The movie was based on the novel “Headed for a Hearse” by Jonathan Latimer.
In the late 30’s Universal, in conjunction with Doubleday books, authorized a series of films based on various mystery books. Called the “Crime Club”, this was the first film in the series. The intent was to produce up to 4 films per year. A total of 8 “B” pictures were produced in the official canon.
Three of the films were based on the Bill Crane and Doc Williams characters. This was the first of those three films. The other two films were "The Lady in the Morgue" 1938 and "The Last Warning" 1938.
One of the highlights of the film is Barbara Pepper doing a fairly decent impression of Mae West. There is also a weird movie-within-a-movie, reenacting the discovery of the body, which is slightly head tilting. Otherwise, it is a pretty standard 30’s style mystery.