Smash and Grab

Jack Buchanan's name is prominent in the credits of this crime comedy as producer and star, but he tries too hard with a forced confection that exerts little appeal today. He and his frequent musical comedy co-star Elsie Randolph play an investigator and his wife in a pale imitation of William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man series. Randolph does most of the work by using her sex appeal to gain employment with the principal suspects behind a spate of jewel robberies, while Buchanan stays in his flat practising jujitsu with the butler. His tedious night-time craving for bananas serves to introduce the film's one brief snatch of a song.