G-Men (1935)

Watched it today. Some of the effects used fit into the "noir"
category.
It concerns the world of criminals, along with the emerging
world of the FBI.

Spoilers===









Most of it is in the dark, with plenty of single point lighting.
Once scene uses a camera looking down on a building,
and a single light shining on a balcony and railings, the
shadows throwing a magnified sihouette against the wall.

The plot is in the background, it is an attempt to place the
history of the early FBI and the pressure to enact laws to make
it a national Police Force.

All the characters are 2 dimensional, and some of the dialogue,
especially during the action sequences, is poor.

All the characters from the lead character's (Cagney) early life
die.

What interested me is the social aspects of attitudes to crime and
punishment and in particular, aspects regarding gun crime.
The film offers just one counter to it. Tool up the G-Men with weapons
to match and outshoot the criminals, and make them a national police
force.
There are two aspects of crime fighting shown, which make it unusual.
(to me)
For a 1930's film, I was impressed with the well shown fingerprint matching,
and reference to the matching of spent bullets to the weapons fired.

The editing of this film must have been brutal.
Many of the scenes seem to have been performed on the run, so to speak.
Was there a shortage of time to make them, was there a shortage of film to
make them a one-take?
The final scene amazed me. The Good Guy gets the gal. He smiles, says about
4 words, and the credits roll.
I noticed the same editing in "42nd St." where one character (the
scriptwriter)
seems to have been edited out except for his few words in two scenes which
were
an essential link.

My question is, did Movie theatres in the 1930's have the power to demand
films
of a specific length?

Stone me.

In article , "Stone me"
wrote:

> My question is, did Movie theatres in the 1930's have the power to demand
> films
> of a specific length?

Maybe not "demand," but certainly length was a concern. Almost every
theater except the big downtown palaces ran double features plus shorts,
and the whole thing couldn't be more than about three hours. And in the
1930s a lot of theaters were owned by the same companies that owned the
studios, so filmmakers had to consider what was good business for the
theaters from the beginning.

Sometimes films ran as single features in the big, first-run downtown
theaters, then were edited a bit shorter for the neighborhoods. So my
question would be, did these films perhaps exist in longer versions that
no longer survive?