Although rather intricately plotted, "Big Town After Dark" finds itself in rather unbelievable territory for most of it's run. The appearance of some of my favorite character actors of the era saves the picture for me, with the likes of Hillary Brooke, Joe Sawyer and Vince Barnett on hand. I always enjoyed seeing Brooke in a bunch of those Abbott and Costello TV episodes playing the next door neighbor, but she also popped up in a fair amount of these 1940's programmers. In this one, she's a newspaper reporter with a recently published novel who gives notice to her editor boyfriend Steve Wilson (Phillip Reed) of the Illustrated Press. With no time to gloat over painting Wilson into a corner at the newspaper, she's immediately replaced by the niece of the publisher, who has a few secrets of her own. The rest of the story plays out in a gambling joint called the Winner's Club, with publisher Amos Peabody (Charles Arnt) suckered for a fifty thousand dollar stake in the club courtesy of his niece Susan's (Ann Gillis) elaborate scam. All of this would have been unbelievable enough, but the coup de grace occurs when it's revealed that Susan is actually married to the owner of the Winner's Club, Chuck LaRue (Richard Travis). Up to that point though, she'd been playing every guy who'd give her a tumble, including Wilson and Larue's own henchman Jake Sebastian (Robert Kent). Too bad little Suzie didn't think this one out far enough, she never got to spend her uncle's money.
Somehow it didn't seem to be much of a prerequisite for these era films to maintain a semblance of real time continuity. Case in point - editor Wilson decides to run the full story on the fifty grand shakedown, and the very next minute LaRue calls to ask him why? How did he know? But I guess it's this kind of goofy stuff that keeps me coming back to these early flicks. That and getting a kick out of seeing which players eventually show up.
Somehow it didn't seem to be much of a prerequisite for these era films to maintain a semblance of real time continuity. Case in point - editor Wilson decides to run the full story on the fifty grand shakedown, and the very next minute LaRue calls to ask him why? How did he know? But I guess it's this kind of goofy stuff that keeps me coming back to these early flicks. That and getting a kick out of seeing which players eventually show up.