Behind the Headlines (1937)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Richard Rosson

Writers:

Thomas Ahearn (story)
J. Robert Bren (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

14 May 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

All is fair in love and yellow journalism, when a girl reporter, engaged to a news-hawk, double crosses him to make the headlines first.

Plot:

Eddie Haines is a radio reporter with Station KBC. He is always getting the scoop, which infuriates those at the New York Star...

Plot Keywords:

Reporter | Newspaper | Newspaper Reporter | Radio Station | Radio Reporter

Cast

Lee Tracy	...	Eddie Haines
Diana Gibson	...	Mary Bradley
Phillip Huston	...	Alan Bennett (as Philip Houston)
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Art Martin
Donald Meek	...	Potter
Tom Kennedy	...	Tiny
Frank M. Thomas	...	Naylor
Doodles Weaver	...	Reporter Duggan
Arthur Thalasso	...	Johnny (as Art Thalasso)
Ralph Robertson	...	Announcer
Edith Craig	...	Bennett's Secretary

Also Known As:

Tomorrow's Headlines (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

58 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #3244) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

The radio truck used in the film was borrowed from J. Roy Hunt who had built it for his own use.

Lee Tracy as radio newsman in this fun RKO programmer

Last month, TCM showed about a dozen Lee Tracy films, largely forgotten today (I managed to tape most of them), and I'm now working my way through them. Tracy's patented persona at the time--wisecracking newspaper man who gets by on his wits more than his brawn--is put to good use in this bottom-of-the-bill 1937 programmer from RK0. Tracy is an ex-newspaperman who has gotten into radio newscasting--not Winchell-style commentating, but on-the-spot live coverage of news from the scene. His assistant is the wonderful comic Tom Kennedy (see my review of FREE RENT, a Columbia short done with Monte Collins). His old newspaper colleagues do not appreciate being scooped by him and don't care for the exciting nature of his reporting, which makes their dry written articles seem irrelevant, so they are actively sabotaging his work. Add to that an ex-girlfriend who is a top reporter at one of the major papers (played by the little-known Diana Gibson, who seems to have been in films for four years and then vanished) and who spars with him throughout. Tracy and Gibson both stumble across a huge gold robbery about mid-way through the film, which propels everything to an exciting climax. Don't ask any questions about character motivation (Gibson's character starts off completely unsympathetic, but eventually softens up) or plot consistency--this is a b-movie that was undoubtedly just a day's work to its writers, who basically manipulated stock character types and movie conventions. Fortunately, with a colorful star like Lee Tracy, there's snappy dialogue and his ability to capture audience sympathy. In some ways, this reminded me of a slicker, more studio-bound version of the Frankie Darro-Kane Richmond action films being made across town at the Ambassador-Conn studio around the same time. BEHIND THE HEADLINES is no classic or hidden gem, but with as much reality present as in a Republic serial, and with Tracy's spirit of fun, it's an entertaining way to kill an hour.