In November 1931 Libby Holman, a singer with a uniquely husky voice who introduced "Moanin' Low", married a persistent stage door Johnnie - Zachery Smith Reynolds, heir to the Reynolds tobacco fortune. Eight months later he was dead - nobody really knew whether it was suicide or murder. Libby Holman and her lover were charged with his murder but because of the sensation it caused and the terrific influx of journalists allowed to walk around the crime scene, the truth was never really found out. Hollywood wanted to jump on the bandwagon and did the first official version of the story - "Reckless" with Libby Holman's good friend Jean Harlow but neither Holman nor Harlow were pleased with the results. But back in 1932 the real case was making sensational headlines and I think this movie is a thinly disguised attempt to deal with the effects shoddy yellow journalism has on a headline grabbing case.
Cornwall County is a sleepy little town where nothing ever happens - or so newspaper reporter Toni (Adrienne Dore) complains. She is using all her powers of persuasion to convince Bruce (Tom Brown) that his future lies in New York city. But like all sleepy little towns (in the movies anyway) this one is a cauldron of bubbling passions and it all comes to a head one night when Mr. Ferguson (Purnell Pratt), the most respected man in town, is shot dead. Mrs. Ferguson (Vivienne Osbourne) is having a not so secret affair with Judd Brooks (Leon Waycoff), a married man and somehow she is not terribly convincing when she is telling of her ordeal to the police.
Finally this town is News!!! and reporters descend from all over the country!!! Many of them are muck rakers who will stop at nothing to get a sensational story - even trumping up flimsy evidence against Judd who actually appears quite innocent of any knowledge of the crime. They turn up to interview his wife (Miriam Seegar) who becomes distraught and collapses. Meanwhile, while all the news hounds are hanging around fabricating evidence and trying to intimidate people who may have information, Bruce is doing his own leg work and investigating and manages to scoop them all.
While Joan Blondell and Grant Mitchell are the nominal stars, this is one movie that wouldn't get by without the rest of the cast - there are more stars in this than there are in heaven (to borrow MGM's phrase). Just when you start to think, this is a Joan Blondell movie without Joan Blondell, her part becomes more prominent - she plays (what else!!) a jaded reporter who is forever trying to reign in low life reporter Bob Parke's (Kenneth Thompson) roving eye and only by the movie's end gets wise to herself. She does have a great emotional scene towards the end when she gives Toni a few home truths about what her life will be like if she follows Bob's advice and goes to New York with him. A bit of the dialogue - "You're only jealous because I'm young" - "I'm only 20, younger than you, just imagine what you'll look like in a few years time" !!! Three cheers for Joan!!! And who's Grant Mitchell you ask. Well, Grant Mitchell was a terrific character actor from the early thirties. Not for him the forbidding fathers, he was always kind and left his kids wanting to make him proud ("Wild Boys of the Road" etc). In this movie he plays a decent but cynical reporter who as the story progresses is more and more disgusted with his journalistic colleagues. He also has a big moment at the end when he gives his opinion about how low some news hounds will stoop.
As to the rest of the cast - it seems that this was the movie to be seen in and anybody who sat in a chair was somebody!!! There was Vivienne Osbourne who gave intensity and drama to every role she played. Adrienne Dore, a cute blonde, who should have made a bigger splash. Tom Brown, a refreshing young juvenile who, like Anne Shirley, received his break in "Anne of Green Gables" (1934). Leslie Fenton always seemed to play dissipated young men - his "Nails" Nathan in "The Public Enemy" was memorable, dependable Walter Miller from the silent serials, Leon Waycoff, who went on to bigger things as Leon Ames, the under-rated Russell Hopton (he is the one sitting on a chair), J. Carroll Naish just starting out and last but not least Miriam Seegar, who passed away this year aged 104.
Cornwall County is a sleepy little town where nothing ever happens - or so newspaper reporter Toni (Adrienne Dore) complains. She is using all her powers of persuasion to convince Bruce (Tom Brown) that his future lies in New York city. But like all sleepy little towns (in the movies anyway) this one is a cauldron of bubbling passions and it all comes to a head one night when Mr. Ferguson (Purnell Pratt), the most respected man in town, is shot dead. Mrs. Ferguson (Vivienne Osbourne) is having a not so secret affair with Judd Brooks (Leon Waycoff), a married man and somehow she is not terribly convincing when she is telling of her ordeal to the police.
Finally this town is News!!! and reporters descend from all over the country!!! Many of them are muck rakers who will stop at nothing to get a sensational story - even trumping up flimsy evidence against Judd who actually appears quite innocent of any knowledge of the crime. They turn up to interview his wife (Miriam Seegar) who becomes distraught and collapses. Meanwhile, while all the news hounds are hanging around fabricating evidence and trying to intimidate people who may have information, Bruce is doing his own leg work and investigating and manages to scoop them all.
While Joan Blondell and Grant Mitchell are the nominal stars, this is one movie that wouldn't get by without the rest of the cast - there are more stars in this than there are in heaven (to borrow MGM's phrase). Just when you start to think, this is a Joan Blondell movie without Joan Blondell, her part becomes more prominent - she plays (what else!!) a jaded reporter who is forever trying to reign in low life reporter Bob Parke's (Kenneth Thompson) roving eye and only by the movie's end gets wise to herself. She does have a great emotional scene towards the end when she gives Toni a few home truths about what her life will be like if she follows Bob's advice and goes to New York with him. A bit of the dialogue - "You're only jealous because I'm young" - "I'm only 20, younger than you, just imagine what you'll look like in a few years time" !!! Three cheers for Joan!!! And who's Grant Mitchell you ask. Well, Grant Mitchell was a terrific character actor from the early thirties. Not for him the forbidding fathers, he was always kind and left his kids wanting to make him proud ("Wild Boys of the Road" etc). In this movie he plays a decent but cynical reporter who as the story progresses is more and more disgusted with his journalistic colleagues. He also has a big moment at the end when he gives his opinion about how low some news hounds will stoop.
As to the rest of the cast - it seems that this was the movie to be seen in and anybody who sat in a chair was somebody!!! There was Vivienne Osbourne who gave intensity and drama to every role she played. Adrienne Dore, a cute blonde, who should have made a bigger splash. Tom Brown, a refreshing young juvenile who, like Anne Shirley, received his break in "Anne of Green Gables" (1934). Leslie Fenton always seemed to play dissipated young men - his "Nails" Nathan in "The Public Enemy" was memorable, dependable Walter Miller from the silent serials, Leon Waycoff, who went on to bigger things as Leon Ames, the under-rated Russell Hopton (he is the one sitting on a chair), J. Carroll Naish just starting out and last but not least Miriam Seegar, who passed away this year aged 104.