rhoda-9 This is an okay, rather lighthearted crime/newspaper picture, not at all the grim movie one would expect from the title. Its main detriment is Brenda Marshall, who has zero chemistry with George Brent (looking a bit seedy, but a bit like a second-string Clark Gable), an unattractive profile, and a very tight, cold, humourless manner. What William Holden saw in her, God alone knows. But Brent is as smooth as ever, and there are old friends like Roscoe Karns, Percy Halton, and the chillingly believable Eduardo Ciannelli, with his face rapidly collapsing from Joker-style phony bonhomie to ice-cold murder.The plot doesn't take itself very seriously, and is sometimes indecipherable, but there are plenty of amusing scenes. But, though Brenda is unsympathetic, the treatment of her, expressing the 1940s idea of the "right" way to live, still has a nasty taste. Three times during the movie she faints dead away because of what she hears, sees, or fears she is about to see (ie, women are not tough enough to be reporters). Then, at the end of the movie, she says she won't give up her career after marriage to George Brent, that they won't have children for a long time. His gesture to the camera shows that he will make sure that's not the case. While a similar "adult" joke at the end of Bachelor Mother was very cute, this is quite unpleasant. It says that Brent will make his wife pregnant against her will and without her knowledge (a very unpleasant picture comes to mind). At the time this was considered cute too, but it sure isn't now.

JohnHowardReid George Brent (newsman), Brenda Marshall (reporter), Gene Lockhart (Lonesome Club manager), Roscoe Karns (reporter), Paul Harvey (publisher), Eduardo Ciannelli (Greer), Frank Richards (Scotty), Fred Kelsey (radio fan), Erville Alderson (Crowder), George Meeker (Cummings), Edith Barrett (Lucille), Jack Carr (No-Neck), Joseph Crehan (warden), Charles Halton (Gates), Dick Elliott (Meeker), Olin Howland (caretaker), Harry Hayden (Judge Hardacre), Joe Downing (Varney), Tom Dugan (trusty), Don DeFore (reporter), John Dilson.Director: JO GRAHAM. Screenplay: Fred Niblo, Jr., Hector Chevigny. Story: Roy Chanslor. Photography: Tony Gaudio, James Van Trees. Film editor: David Weisbart. Produced for Warner Bros by famous New York newsman Mark Hellinger, this film used elements from Hi, Nellie!, Final Edition, The Girl on the Front Page and other Roy Chanslor yarns. U.S. release: 10 October 1942. Australian release: 22 February 1945. 77 minutes. COMMENT: A brisk re-make of "Front Page Woman" (1935), this fast, funny and most delightfully and unexpectedly facetious newspaper yarn has all the makings of a cult classic. Directed by former Michael Curtiz assistant, Jo Graham, in a furiously stylish Curtiz style, the movie features a host of our favorite character players at their most ingratiating. Despite hot competition from Ciannelli, Lockhart and Hayden, it's Frank Richards, however, who walks away – or rather dances off – with the picture. His zest in swinging Lonesome Marshall around the club is the gem of gems!

jacobs-greenwood Very fast moving drama/comedy with a special cast of well known actors; one of several remakes of Hi, Nellie! (1934). Directed by Jo Graham, Roy Chanslor's story was treated by Fred Niblo Jr. and Hector Chevigny.George Brent plays a newspaper editor driven by his ear twitching hunches; Charles Halton plays his assist who is intent on replacing him (competing for Brent's job). Brenda Marshall plays a reporter assigned to cover the execution of one of crime Boss Greer's (Eduardo Ciannelli) flunkies. She faints and misses the 11th hour save by Greer, then reports incorrectly (that he was executed) to Brent, who had correctly predicted the Greer's action (via an ear twitch).Marshall's character is therefore "sentenced", by Brent's, to be the lovelorn reporter on the staff, a job nobody wants. A nut named Crowder, who like Brent's had predicted the save and had been compiling incriminating evidence against Greer, turns up dead. While investigating Crowder's death, Brent riles Greer, who pressures Brent's boss, the owner of the paper (played by Paul Harvey), into dumping him down to the lovelorn reporter job.Brent believes that if he does the lovelorn reporter job extremely well, he'll get back his old job. His plan fails, however, when his efforts cause an increase in the paper's circulation. So, he decides to pursue the mob boss himself, with help from Marshall and his photographer friend, played by Roscoe Karns.Their investigation leads them to a dance-marriage hall run by Carl Robelink (Gene Lockhart). The convoluted fast paced plot becomes as much if not more comedy than drama, but eventually the bad guys are caught and Brent gets his job back, and assigns his rival, Halton, the dreaded lovelorn reporter role.

bl-11 The entire film uses that hectic non-stop dialogue style that was far more frequent in the black and white days. It makes it kind of difficult to feel involved, more like you are watching a comedy show than a film. And the means with which the main story is introduced, in the same blase fashion, doesn't lend it any gravity. In the end you feel you have watched a long episode of an old sit-com.