AllMovie

Indefatigable French director Maurice Tourneur launched his three-picture schedule for 1932 with Au Nom de la Toi (In the Name of the Law). Marcelle Chantal plays the lovely but lethal head of an opium-smuggling ring. When Chantal orders the murder of a detective, another sleuth, played by Charles Vanel, is ordered to infiltrate her gang. The "heroine" falls in love with Vanel, thereby sealing her own doom. Among the many highlights is the near-surrealistic climax, in which the gang's hideout is bombarded guerilla-style with tear gas. Au Nom de la Loi was based on a novel by Paul Bringuier.