DETECTIVE STORY (1951) Tough day in the squad room

“Homicide: Life on the Street,” “NYPD” and even “Barney Miller” - not to mention a million other TV shows and movies - owe their look and feel to DETECTIVE STORY. Based on a play and looking like it - most of the action takes place on three sets - this is a gritty and well-acted film spanning one day in a police station, during which time we meet a variety of detectives and detectees. There's a batty old lady; a petty embezzler and his adoring girlfriend; a pair of slightly comical but ultimately lethal burglars; and a charmingly naïve shoplifter played by Lee Grant who, along with one of the burglars, Joseph Wiseman, had been in the Broadway cast - and the title character, a hard-nosed, by-the-book detective named Jim McLeod (Kirk Douglas). McLeod has no mercy for lawbreakers and discovers, ironically, that his obsessive pursuit of an abortionist leads him to personal crisis. Great cast, great writing, directed by the great William Wyler - and though dated, repeatedly watchable.