Mr. Dynamite

“Mr. Dynamite--you might as well get used to the name, because no one calls T.N. Thompson anything else--is the creation of Dashiell Hammett, who wrote The Thin Man. Mr. Hammett's distinction among mystery tale spinners is that he never takes his corpse as seriously as his detective; and he never lets his detective take himself seriously at all”-- New York Times, 1935.
William K. Everson notes that Mr. Dynamite “one of the last films directed by the great Alan Crosland”-- is “a virtually forgotten Dashiell Hammett story, made in the wake of the success of The Thin Man, and clearly an attempt to repeat the popular concoction of crime, cocktails and comedy--yet in no sense a ripoff. Edmond Lowe (as detective T.N. Thompson) is more of a maverick (and undomesticated) private eye than William Powell. The mystery is a good one and typically complicated, and it's all so slick and fast-paced it's hard to realize that it's all told in 69 minutes. What a pity that the economics of today's movie business and the total dissolution of the old studio system make it impossible for such solidly crafted and thoroughly entertaining ‘little' pictures as this to be made today...even for television.”