Contrary to what a lot of people say I think Richard Barthelemess's career was really boosted by the talkies - he was a real success story!! He had an inner spiritual quality noticed by D.W. Griffith and exploited in films like "Broken Blossoms" and "Tol'able David" and he gave beautiful performances. Even though, in "Weary River", an early talkie, he played a singing convict, it proved he could talk and his old sensitivity shone through. An added aloofness made him right at home as soldiers who come home from the war cynical and battered, all at sea in a world that has left them behind ("The Last Flight" (1931) and "Heroes For Sale" (1933)) and as a country hick who takes on the plantation owners ("The Cabin in the Cotton" (1932)). His popularity lasted for at least a few years and he was No. 6 in the popularity polls in 1931. "The Finger Points" is based on the career of Jake Lingle, a "leg man" - someone employed by a newspaper who goes from place to place looking for crime stories. He was initially hailed as a hero, after his death in 1931, but it was later revealed he was involved in racketeering with Al Capone. Talk about a movie "plucked from today's headlines"!!!
Breckenridge Lee (Barthelemess) is an eager reporter from Savannah with a letter of recommendation to "The Press", the most prestigious newspaper in the city. At first he is pretty wet behind the ears but with the help of Marcia (could Fay Wray look any more beautiful) and Breezy (the always dependable Regis Toomey) he manages to get through without making too big a dill of himself. When "The Press" declares war on crime Lee becomes a crusader and is given an assignment to investigate "The Sphinx Club", a gambling house that is a front for the mob. Lee approaches it with gusto but Marcia and Breezy are horrified that such a "baby" should be given such a dangerous assignment as his first story.
Unlike the other reporters who treat the crusading as a joke his zealousness gets "The Sphinx Club" raided and sees him beaten up by two thugs. He has already been offered a bribe by Haines' offsider Louie (Clark Gable) and of course he refuses, but when his medical bills come in and the paper refuses to help out it looks as though he will turn traitor!!! 1931 was an astonishing year for Clark Gable - he appeared in 12 features, from a basic walk on as Anita Page's righteous husband in "The Easiest Way" to the rough gangster who got to shove Norma Shearer around in "A Free Soul". As Photoplay commented at the time - "He's everybody's big moment"!! "The Finger Points" was definitely a high point for him!!
Lee soon has the gangsters running scared with his threats of exposing them unless they do things his way. The "No. 1" - a faceless gangster, seen only from the back has given Lee $100,000 to keep his newest gambling house "The Waverley" out of the newspapers but - you guessed it, Breezy, who has been given a pep talk by Marcia about working hard and trying to amount to someone, has heard a rumor and is eager to expose "The Waverley" and all it's crookedness on the front page!!
The movie ends on an ambiguous note - the nation mourns Lee as a martyr and Breezy gives one of those sentimental speeches about what a square guy Lee was and how he wouldn't be on the take etc, however, the gangsters think they know better, as Louie spits in disgust "A Martyr"!!! Even though Marcia doesn't want to have anything to do with him, once Lee gives her the old "I'm not working with them - I'm trying to expose them" speech she is quite happy to forgive and forget and doesn't insist he gives all his ill gotten gains to the local orphanage!!!
Breckenridge Lee (Barthelemess) is an eager reporter from Savannah with a letter of recommendation to "The Press", the most prestigious newspaper in the city. At first he is pretty wet behind the ears but with the help of Marcia (could Fay Wray look any more beautiful) and Breezy (the always dependable Regis Toomey) he manages to get through without making too big a dill of himself. When "The Press" declares war on crime Lee becomes a crusader and is given an assignment to investigate "The Sphinx Club", a gambling house that is a front for the mob. Lee approaches it with gusto but Marcia and Breezy are horrified that such a "baby" should be given such a dangerous assignment as his first story.
Unlike the other reporters who treat the crusading as a joke his zealousness gets "The Sphinx Club" raided and sees him beaten up by two thugs. He has already been offered a bribe by Haines' offsider Louie (Clark Gable) and of course he refuses, but when his medical bills come in and the paper refuses to help out it looks as though he will turn traitor!!! 1931 was an astonishing year for Clark Gable - he appeared in 12 features, from a basic walk on as Anita Page's righteous husband in "The Easiest Way" to the rough gangster who got to shove Norma Shearer around in "A Free Soul". As Photoplay commented at the time - "He's everybody's big moment"!! "The Finger Points" was definitely a high point for him!!
Lee soon has the gangsters running scared with his threats of exposing them unless they do things his way. The "No. 1" - a faceless gangster, seen only from the back has given Lee $100,000 to keep his newest gambling house "The Waverley" out of the newspapers but - you guessed it, Breezy, who has been given a pep talk by Marcia about working hard and trying to amount to someone, has heard a rumor and is eager to expose "The Waverley" and all it's crookedness on the front page!!
The movie ends on an ambiguous note - the nation mourns Lee as a martyr and Breezy gives one of those sentimental speeches about what a square guy Lee was and how he wouldn't be on the take etc, however, the gangsters think they know better, as Louie spits in disgust "A Martyr"!!! Even though Marcia doesn't want to have anything to do with him, once Lee gives her the old "I'm not working with them - I'm trying to expose them" speech she is quite happy to forgive and forget and doesn't insist he gives all his ill gotten gains to the local orphanage!!!