The film was directed by Jack Conway, written by Andrew Percival Younger, and co-starred Anita Page, Carroll Nye, Wheeler Oakman, and Mae Busch.

The movie was filmed on location in Los Angeles, and Lt. Roy Harlacher of the LAPD served as Chaney's technical advisor.

[4] The film focuses on the 'Plain Clothes Men', a group of detectives dressed up as average citizens to catch criminals without being noticed.

Among the staff is Dan Coghlan (Lon Chaney), a police officer with flat feet and a tough disposition, who is unsatisfied with the lack of adventure.

When arriving there, he finds "Mile-Away" Skeeter Carlson (Wheeler Oakman), a crook who never gets busted for the crimes he commits due to a lack of evidence.

Dan decides to follow him, and after talking to Skeeter's low-life girlfriend Bessie (Mae Busch) without gaining any information, he prevents Skeeter from seducing young Myrtle Sullivan (Anita Page), an innocent flapper who finds excitement in hanging out with crooks.

Dan has assigned himself as Myrtle's care-taker, and he disapproves of her boyfriend Marty (Carroll Nye), a dapper gangster without a job.

Shortly after, Bessie's dead body is found in her car, and Dan is convinced that Skeeter is responsible for her death, considering that she was going to testify against him.

Dan overhears this conversation, and hurries to protect Marty only to catch him in the midst of a fur warehouse robbery.

Before leaving town, Marty wants to meet Myrtle one last time and sends her a letter, but Skeeter reads it before she can receive it.

Chaney personally chose Anita Page as the leading lady, after seeing the rushes for Our Dancing Daughters (1928), in which she co-starred.

Therefore, a misplaced star turns what might have been a stirring meller into second grade quality program output, wholly dependent on Chaney's name."

--- (Print Ad-Provo Sunday Herald, ((Provo, Utah)) 11/11/28) "CHANEY, as a detective, single-handed, corners the city's most dangerous "mob" in their hide-away- and then finds he has bitten off more than he can chew!"

The real inside story of how New York plain clothes men battle the forces of crime day and night."