Det. Sgt. Steve Johnson
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Bunco Squad: Directed by Herbert I. Leeds. With Robert Sterling, Joan Dixon, Ricardo Cortez, Douglas Fowley. A detective goes after a ring of phony "mediums" who are trying to swindle a rich widow out of her fortune.
- (325)
- Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
- Herbert I. Leeds
- 1950-09-01
Bunco Squad is a 1950 American crime film directed by Herbert I. Leeds and written by George Callahan. The film stars Robert Sterling, Joan Dixon, Ricardo Cortez, and Dante, and features Douglas Fowley and Elisabeth Risdon. The film was released on September 1, 1950 by RKO Pictures.
Con man Tony Wells, lining up rich widow Jessica Royce as his latest mark, sets up a false paranormal society with other charlatans to convince the credulous Jessica that her late son is speaking to her through their sham seances.
As the film opens, Los Angeles Detective Sgt. Steve Johnson (Robert Sterling) is showing a civic group a film that explains the sort of criminal activities he investigates as part of the Bunco Division.
- Herbert I. Leeds, John E. Pommer
- Robert Sterling
Refreshing quaint story of the police bunco squad trying to protect the public (e.g. a wealthy widow) from some con men fronted by a fake spiritual medium.
Told in semi-documentary style, this film deals with a little-known section of the Los Angeles Police Department which is assigned solely to checking on the activities of fortune tellers, swamis, palmists, and other occult societies, missing only Sciencetology.
A Los Angeles bunco squad* decides to crack down on fraud in their city, visiting every shady business they can think of (fortune tellers, numerologists, graphologists, palm readers, etc...), investigating and warning all to keep their noses clean.
