User Reviews

Strictly grade D, this MGM programmer is a loud and obnoxious comedy about an ambitious writer (John Shelton) who makes the mistake of signing up with the wrong agency (lead by the Sam Levene like Albert Dekker and Charles Butterworth) and basically being worked to death. With domineering aunt (Alma Kruger) standing by to criticize his every move, it seems that the only ones on his side are his henpecked uncle (Reginald Owen) and Dekker's secretary (Virginia Grey), especially when he finds that his name isn't even on the stories published in the magazine he bought a small interest in.

Out of nowhere comes Donald Meek as a drunken mystery man who keeps breaking into the hotel suite where Shelton is sequestered. Dekker and Butterworth keep standing over Shelton like flies over a corpse, demanding he finish, and never being satisfied with anything he writes, ultimately bringing out a contraption that puts together the most cliched and predictable of stories. A critic's letter to Shelton towards the end is probably one of the few decent details of the script, a unique commentary on what is wrong with a lot of modern writing, something that could be said for dozens of pretentious scripts that ended up being movies like this.

Directed by Busby Berkeley, who received Best Dance Direction Oscar nominations for three consecutive years in the 30's, this comedy features John Shelton in one of his few leading (or even credited) roles. He plays a struggling, serious writer who chooses to write "junk" (e.g. pulp fiction) in hopes of earning an opportunity to have his novel published.

Unfortunately, this film misses the mark badly - with Shelton providing a credible straight man, its collection of oddball characters come off as silly without being funny. Virginia Grey, who plays the helpful go-between, and eventual love interest, for Shelton and her smarmy publisher employers, is unable to save it.

Johnny Briggs (Shelton) would rather write novels and make his own living than be controlled by his real estate broker Aunt Victoria Mason (Alma Kruger), like his weak Uncle Reginald (Reginald Owen) is. Wearing the pants in the family, she's fed up with her nephew's whimsy, but Johnny's Uncle provides him the means, $2,000 in emergency funds his wife had given him to hold onto, to continue his writing instead of collecting his Aunt's tenants' rent. Rita Quigley appears briefly as Johnny's cousin. Tired of receiving letters of rejection from publishers who haven't even read his submissions, Johnny decides to visit one. He'd decided to write Western fiction for a pulp magazine, fashioned after its current writer Dusty King, in order to get his foot in the door.

When they too reject his stories without reading them, Johnny decides to visit the Smokey Trails publishers in person. Margie Blake (Grey), the secretary, tells Johnny they're not interested. But, as "luck" would have it, publisher Phil Hendricks (Albert Dekker) and his editor "Bittsy" Conway (Charles Butterworth) have gotten themselves into a financial crisis. They can't pay their employees, their writer Dusty King (Donald Meek), nor their printer Mr. Packer (Charles Halton, uncredited), but they have to produce three more issues before a larger entity, owned by Mr. Hutchins (George Lessey), will acquire their whole operation for $15,000.

When King revolts, refusing to write another issue without being paid, and Packer won't print for same, Hendricks and Conway con Johnny into buying a one third partnership with his $2,000 if he'll write the issues. Though she feels bad for Johnny, Margie hasn't been paid recently either and reluctantly helps her employers scam poor Johnny. For no good reason at all, Conway has a blonde bimbo "Baby" (Marion Martin) who says little and follows him around everywhere he goes.

Johnny is then put up in the publisher's penthouse apartment where he is expected to work through the night cranking out all the articles, including a novel, required for the magazine. He refuses to let his existing novel, written with his "blood, sweat, and tears" after significant research over three years, be published in anything other than a book. His publishers introduce Johnny to "The Writers- Friend", a "magic wheel" which provides the formula elements required to quickly turn out a new novel, overnight! He's assisted by Margie. When he's finished, she leaves with the manuscripts while he falls asleep, exhausted.

Then King sneaks into the apartment, scouring his former writer's haven for hidden alcohol, then exits unseen by the sleeping Johnny, with a full bottle. Also unbeknownst to Johnny, his publishers print the issue using King's established name, without crediting his writing. Meanwhile, Hutchins and his associate (Byron Foulger, uncredited) are having second thoughts about their forthcoming acquisition. Though Margie later admits to knowing this, Johnny is not upset with her. In fact, she helps him again with the next issue. After this second all-nighter, both end up exhausted and asleep, in different rooms of the penthouse. When a disgruntled (for having his name used without his permission) King shows up again looking for booze, he highjacks the latest issue. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the publisher then takes the sleeping Johnny's serious novel, against Margie's protestations, and prints it for the next issue.

What happens next? Who cares? After a ridiculous and humorless sequence showing Johnny trying to save his life's work, he will learn the truth about his talent from Hutchins. The recognizable Pat O'Malley appears, uncredited, as a police officer. Naturally, there is more in store for Johnny regarding Margie. Even though the story is based on John Cecil Holm's novel "Four Cents a Word", perhaps the author, screenplay writer Marion Parsonnet, and director Berkeley used "The Writers-Friend" (notice the incorrect punctuation) to produce this, poorly titled, uninspired film.

Truly dreadful. The only redemption of this ghastly mess is it denouement: The protagonist turns out not to be a good writer after all but, as has been suspected by other, a hack.

John Shelton is the lead. He's a handsome man but he has very little charisma. He certainly is not a comedian. Virginia Grey was an appealing performer but she can't save this mess.

It plods, it bangs its knee, it stumbles along till its very welcome end.

The movie itself has no charm. Additionally, it has one of the most egregiously offensive ostensibly funny drunks in movie history: Donald Meek. He is cast rather against type, as a writer of Western pulp fiction. When we meet him he is drunk and he is always drunk, clad in the robe from a Turkish bath, swilling booze and engaging in what are meant to be hilarious hijinks.

The whole thing adds up to one of the absolute worst B-pictures I have ever seen. Please keep unearthing these oldies, because many are undeservedly forgotten. This one, thought, earns every ounce of neglect it has had.