''Under Cover Man'' is a 1932

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

directed by

James Flood James Joseph Flood (July 31, 1895 – February 5, 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'', Fl ...

and starring

George Raft George Raft (né 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 remembe ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

.Everett Aaker, ''The Films of George Raft'', McFarland & Company, 2013, page 34. It was produced and distributed by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

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 *

as Kenneth Mason *

Roscoe Karns Roscoe Karns (September 7, 1891 – February 6, 1970) was an American actor who appeared in nearly 150 films between 1915 and 1964. He specialized in cynical, wise-cracking (and often tipsy) characters, and his rapid-fire delivery enlivened many ...

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, befo ...

as Connie *

Gregory Ratoff Gregory Ratoff (born Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner; ; April 20, c. 1893 – December 14, 1960) was a Russian-American film director, actor and producer. As an actor, he was best known for his role as producer "Max Fabian" in ''All About Eve'' (195 ...

as Martoff * David Landau as Conklin *

Paul Porcasi Paul Porcasi (1 January 1879 – 8 August 1946) was an Italian actor. He appeared in more than 140 films from 1917 to 1945. Biography Porcasi sang with the Metropolitan Opera. One of his early non-operatic productions was ''The Country B ...

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 theatre in 1898. In his early 20s Hodgs ...

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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' 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 English-language crime films {{1930s-crime-film-stub