Captain Timothy 'Two Gun' Nolan is appointed head of the New York detective force, and as his first act, rounds up every criminal in town. Gang boss 'Dapper' Frank Trent stands bail for all of them as independent minor gang-leader. Setting out to get Trent, Nolan moves in on his hideout, assisted by his friend 'Shakespeare.' Trent kills Shakespeare, but makes Nolan believe it is his shot that has done so. Nolan resigns his commission and becomes a drunk. Found unconscious by Trent, he is offered as the pièce de résistance at a gangland banquet which 'The Magpie' attends. A lost film.
Direction
Sternberg's early visual poetry before Dietrich.
Acting
Bancroft's physical collapse; Powell's silken menace.
Director
Josef von Sternberg
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Paramount destroyed most of their silent holdings in 1933; The Drag Net survives only in fragments, reportedly including the climactic banquet.
This was Sternberg's final collaboration with Bancroft before discovering Marlene Dietrich—imagine this same doom-laden sensuality with a femme fatale at center.
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