''Under Cover Man'' is a 1932 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

crime film directed by

James Flood James Joseph Flood (1895-1953) was an American film director. Born in New York City, Flood became an assistant director with Biograph in 1912 and was active through 1952. Career When working on '' The Swellhead'', Flood decided he wanted to ...

and starring

George Raft George Raft (born George Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is ...

and

Nancy Carroll Nancy Carroll (born Ann Veronica Lahiff; November 19, 1903 – August 6, 1965) was an American actress. She started her career in Broadway musicals and then became an actress in sound films and was in many films from 1927 to 1938. She was t ...

.Everett Aaker, ''The Films of George Raft'', McFarland & Company, 2013, page 34.

Plot

Criminal Nick Darrow goes undercover to get the gangsters who killed his father. He teams up with Lora, the sister of Jimmy, a man who was killed by the same people.

Cast

as Nick Darrow *

as Lora Madigan *

Lew Cody Lew Cody (born Louis Joseph Côté; February 22, 1884 – May 31, 1934) was an American stage and film actor whose career spanned the silent film and early sound film age. He gained notoriety in the late 1910s for playing "male vamps" in films ...

as Kenneth Mason *

Roscoe Karns Roscoe, also spelled Rosco or Roscow, may refer to: People * Roscoe (name) Places United States *Roscoe, California (disambiguation) *Roscoe Township (disambiguation) *Roscoe, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Roscoe, Illinois, a village * ...

as Dannie *

Noel Francis Noel Francis (born Noel Frances Sweeney, August 31, 1906 – October 30, 1959) was an American actress of the stage and screen during the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Texas, she began her acting career on the Broadway stage in the mid-1920s, befor ...

as Connie *

Gregory Ratoff Gregory Ratoff (born Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner; russian: Григорий Васильевич Ратнер, tr. ; April 20, c. 1893 – December 14, 1960) was a Russian-born American film director, actor and producer. As an actor, he was bes ...

as Martoff * David Landau as Conklin *

Paul Porcasi Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chr ...

as Sam Dorse *

Leyland Hodgson Leyland Hodgson (5 October 1892 – 16 March 1949), also known as Leland Hodgson, was an English-born American character actor of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in London on 5 October 1892, Hodgson entered the theater in 1898. In his early 20s, Ho ...

as Gillespie *

William Janney William Janney (born Russell Dixon Janney, February 15, 1908 – December 22, 1992) was an American actor who appeared in 39 films between 1929 and 1937. He was the son of author and theatrical producer Russell Janney,(28 December 1940)William ...

as Jimmy Madigan * George Davis as Bernie *

Robert Homans Robert Edward Homans (November 8, 1877 – July 28, 1947) was an American actor who entered films in 1923 after a lengthy stage career. Life and career Robert Homans was born November 8, 1877, in Malden, Massachusetts. Although he studied ...

as Flanagan

Production

The film was based on a novel by journalist John Wilstach which was published in 1931. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' says "the book keeps pace with this morning's edition fairly well. Mr Wilstach merely blocks his crooks out in the rough. He lets action speak louder than style. There is a rather tarnished love interest. But the crookery is exciting." Filming took place in October 1932. It was called "Raft's first important personal assignment." It was the first time Raft played an undercover man. He would go on to play several more, even insisting scripts be changed so his character was an undercover man.

Reception

The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' called it "exciting and those who like this kind of entertainment will make no mistake to see it."RACKETEERS AT IT AGAIN: "Under-Cover Man" Opens at Paramount Theater With George Raft in Featured Role Scott, John. Los Angeles Times December 6, 1932: A7.

References

External links

*
Under Cover Man
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

Review of film
at Variety 1932 films 1930s English-language films American black-and-white films 1932 crime films Paramount Pictures films Films directed by James Flood American crime films Films with screenplays by Garrett Fort Films based on novels 1930s American films Films with screenplays by Francis Edward Faragoh {{1930s-crime-film-stub