Pretty good cynical newspaper movie (a staple of 30s Hollywood). Not as gloriously dark as "His Girl Friday", the best of the genre, or as flat out funny as "Libeled Lady", the second best, (and as a portrait of Walter Winchell it's considerably beneath "Sweet Smell of Success"), but director Roy Del Ruth provides a good balance between the two moods while keeping the pace properly zippy. Lee Tracy, of course, is deep in his comfort zone playing a wisecracking heel. Also good are Ruth Donelly as his equally mordant assistant, Alan Jenkins as a gangster terrified by Tracy's description of the electric chair (the film's best scene), Emma Dunn as Tracy's sweet, dim mom and Dick Powell nicely satirizing the syrupy songs of his mercifully short lived crooner period. Would have liked more of Ned Sparks and his sharp, curdled jabs, though, and the ending is way too sappy/happy for this most curmudgeonly of genres, especially one made pre code. B minus.
Review of Blessed Event
