Here’s an excellent detective film. It has been a long time since Maurice Tourneur last let us see his genius at work. His film is lively, vital, without pauses or dawdling. Action, movement, an even performance. That’s all. Nothing else is needed. Paul Bringuier’s screenplay is the kind that appeals to big audiences that relish every minute of a great police investigation. As the plot thickens, we enter the life of the Sûreté inspectors, we follow uncertain leads with them and witness interrogations of the accused. The details are so precise that the film has the feel of a documentary, which makes it even more lifelike.
The story teems with new and unexpected developments that Maurice Tourneur knits tightly together with the help of Charles Vanel, Labry and Jean Dax, who seem to have been in the police all their lives, Jean Marchat, beautiful and mysterious Marcelle Chantal, and Gabriel Gabrio.

Jean Vidal, Au nom de la loi, “Pour Vous”, n. 171, February 25, 1932