What makes it different from others?

Very well executed

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This movie has an interesting opening that will lead one to wonder how the leading star's character will wind up. William Powell is Donald Free, an American undercover agent in the diplomatic corps. He is on a secret mission in Paris but when he is caught with some stolen secret papers, the American embassy denies any knowledge of him. He claims to represent a newspaper syndicate but won't name it. So, the French revoke his Visa on April 17, 1932, and deport him as an undesirable alien. He is sent back to the U.S. aboard a French cattle boat. That in itself is a little strange. The U.S. was the leading export nation of beef even in the 1930s, but this may have been some breeding stock or cheap beef. Free is the sole passenger and appears to be under some sort of house arrest - maybe even working as part of the ship's crew. When the ship reaches New York harbor, the captain gets a radio message from Paris that Free is wanted for further investigations. So, the captain is to turn him over to the captain of another French ship heading back to France. Well, Free will have none of that. He socks the crew member guarding him in the captain's cabin and then jumps ship and swims ashore. After trying to find work in the field of police, security and investigation, and being turned down, he finds an opportunity with a private eye whom he had tricked right after he jumped ship and came ashore. The rest of this story is an interesting drama and romance with some intrigue. Free exposes crooks, including his detective partner, and saves his sweetheart from a murder conviction. He eventually gets reinstated in the secret service of the diplomatic corps. All the cast give fine performances. Arthur Hohl is particularly good as Dan Hogan, original owner of the Peerless Detective Agency, whom Free attaches himself to. Powell shows the class, wit and charm that made him a leading man for many years in Hollywood. He created the model for comedy mysteries that few have been able to match. My favorite line in the film is from Ruth Donnelly as Amy Moran. She says, "It takes a whole crew to wreck a house, but boy, how one many can wreck a home." For more funny dialog, see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page of the movie.

Long before he directed Casablanca, Mildred Pierce and The Adventures of Robin Hood (among other brilliant films) Michael Curtiz took a hand in putting together this little Depression gem about shady detective work, women with money to spare, and a budding romance. The always puckishly sophisticated William Powell appears to have a great deal of fun playing what appears to be a shady detective—but one with an integrity and a great charm for women. In this zippy little pre-code gem, Powell is hired to put a wealthy female gambler in jeopardy so that her considerable winnings can be taken back by the speakeasy where she gambles; can you guess what happens when the two meet? The woman is played by the engagingly attractive but underused Margaret Lindsay, and she's an apt foil for Powell's machinations (Lindsay has never looked better than she does in this film, and one wonders why she never moved into more major films).This is another Warner Brother's quickie, a highly entertaining, fast-moving (67 minutes!) "B" film loaded with familiar character actors like Hobart Cavanaugh and Irving Bacon and even Toby Wing, whose wide-smile and sexy persona impresses immediately in a five second appearance as one of Powell's willing conquests. There's even a pre-code drug addict named "Whitey" referred to as a "hophead" into "snow," the sort of drug reference which, as a result of the new code, would completely disappear from films for twenty years after 1934; drugs didn't make a major appearance again until Sinatra's Oscar-nominated performance in The Man With The Golden Arm in 1956. This is not a great film by any means, but a perfect Saturday matinée popcorn movie, an excellent example of a studio film that was no longer made after 1950.

Private Detective 62 casts William Powell as a detective once again. But if you think you're going to see something on the order of Nick Charles or Philo Vance think again. Powell is playing one seedy gumshoe who through the circumstances of the Great Depression and the fact he's been deported back to America from France under indiscreet circumstances, he finds he's desperate for employment.He works a few cons in this film, but the biggest is when Powell goes into partnership with peephole peeper Arthur Hohl and then the two are financed in their detective agency by gangster/gambler Gordon Westcott.Westcott has a special job for them, to discredit and/or get money back that society woman Margaret Lindsay. But one sight of Lindsay and Powell has an attack of ethics. Private Detective 62 has its moments, but Powell's ethics seem to be rather elastic here. He's not like his more famous detective roles and I think fans will be disappointed.

William Powell's stay at Warner Brothers was a short one - only a couple of years - but he hit the bullseye in every picture he did there. This film is one of them. Here William Powell plays Donald Free, a secret agent of sorts who gets caught in France with stolen documents. The agency he works for has already told him that if he is caught all knowledge of his action will be disavowed, so he is unsurprised when that is exactly what happens. For some strange reason, the French take Donald all the way to New York harbor before deciding to transfer him to another ship and send him right back to France. The only reason for all of this inefficiency can be as a plot device for Donald to make an easy escape by jumping overboard and swimming to shore, which he does.Donald is now home and at liberty, but that doesn't get you far in 1933 Depression era America. Without references he is unable to get a job as a detective for any police department or obtain a private detective license. But after pounding the pavement with no luck for months, Donald manages to partner up with a private detective firm on its last legs. The partner has the license but not much talent at detecting or discretion, and Donald has the talent and no license. Ruth Donnelly plays the firm's secretary with mouth and moxy to spare. They're doing OK and then a well-known gangster bankrolls the firm and floods the office with business. When that gangster wants a favor in return - the discrediting of a beautiful customer that his gambling joint owes tens of thousands of dollars to because he doesn't have the money to pay her when she finally decides to cash in her chips - things begin to get really interesting. You'll probably figure out what's going on even before Powell's character solves all of the mysteries for you, but here as in most of the early 30's Warner Brothers films, most of the fun is the journey not the destination. Highly recommended.