Off the Record (1939)

Blondell and O'Brien star as newspaper reporters who inadvertently send Jordan to reform school after they write an expose of the illegal slot-machine racket the boy was a spotter for. ... See full summary »

Director:

James Flood

Writers:

Niven Busch (screenplay), Lawrence Kimble (screenplay),

Stars:

Pat O'Brien, Joan Blondell, Bobby Jordan

Cast

Cast overview:
Pat O'Brien	...	Thomas 'Breezy' Elliott
Joan Blondell	...	Jane Morgan
Bobby Jordan	...	Mickey Fallon
Alan Baxter	...	Joe Fallon
William B. Davidson	...	Scotty
Morgan Conway	...	Lou Baronette
Clay Clement	...	Jaeggers
Selmer Jackson	...	Det. Mendall
Addison Richards	...	Brand
Pierre Watkin	...	Barton
Joe King	...	Brown
Douglas Wood	...	J.W.
Armand Kaliz	...	Chatteau

Storyline

Blondell and O'Brien star as newspaper reporters who inadvertently send Jordan to reform school after they write an expose of the illegal slot-machine racket the boy was a spotter for. Guilt-ridden, Blondell convinces O'Brien that they should marry in order to adopt Jordan and get him out of reform school.

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Plot Keywords:

reporter | delinquent

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 January 1939 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fora do Expediente

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

62 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits

The title card and credits are all headlines and stories appearing in a newspaper.

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Connections

References Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

User Reviews

Decent B Movie

Off the Record (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A reporter (Joan Blondell) does a story about mobsters hiring kids to guard various gambling rackets, which sets off a fire storm that gets one kid's (Bobby Jordan) brother thrown into jail. The kid, in return, gets sent to reform school, which causes the reporter to feel bad so she marries her editor (Pat O'Brien) so that they can adopt the kid. This Warner "B" film tries to mix various genres but as you can tell, it's basically THE FRONT PAGE meets any gangster period from that era mixed in with an East Side Kids type drama. Jordan, a veteran of the child group, does a pretty good job in his role, although his more emotional scenes don't come off too well. It's the cast that makes this thing worth viewing as Blondell and O'Brien offer up great performances and really deliver the goods. The two have great chemistry together as their comic timing is perfect. Both also share quite a few good scenes with the young Jordan. The movie runs a fast paced 71-minutes, which flows by for the first hour but then loses a bit of steam as we get a silly and predictable side plot dealing with the kid's brother wanting help to break out of prison. This all leads to a predictable conclusion but fans of the "B" genre will get a kick out of the film due to its cast. Fans of them will want to check this out but others can stay clear.