Wanted to add, I don't think this song has any deeper meaning. Whoever wrote it probably just liked those old 20's-30's detective novels and movies where some hardboiled gumshoe solves a case and gets the girl. The song draws a picture and creates a certain atmosphere in a few broad strokes and leaves the listener to fill in the details according to his/her own perception of that era.
Wanted to add, I don't think this song has any deeper meaning. Whoever wrote it probably just liked those old 20's-30's detective novels and movies where some hardboiled gumshoe solves a case and gets the girl. The song draws a picture and creates a certain atmosphere in a few broad strokes and leaves the listener to fill in the details according to his/her own perception of that era.