A great performance by Peggy Shannon elevates this newspaper drama to make it a hidden gem amongst the thousands of low budget films to come out of Hollywood's B studios in the golden age of movie making. It's the story of an aging newspaper owner (the lovable Claude Gillingwater) who fears that a local big wig is out to take over his paper. In a last ditch effort to save his paper from going under the thumb of somebody who would surely ruin it, he brings in a New York City reporter named Jerry to be its new editor, unaware that Jerry is actually a woman! She's pretty tough, too, and takes on the ruthless Edwin Maxwell without fear, winning the respect of Gillingwater and his staff as well as the townspeople when she exposes a fraud concerning a local oil well which many people invested their life savings in.
Sterling Holloway gives a fine comic performance as a rather effeminate and delightfully eccentric co-worker at the newspaper, and Russell Hopton is fine as Shannon's love interest who has more than a passing interest in what happens concerning the actions of the ruthless Maxwell. Ottola Nesmith, as the newspaper's secretary, will steal your heart as she overhears what is going on concerning the oil well and reacts to it. There's also a fascinating scene with the townsfolk discussing the oil well's sudden success. It is so obvious that these were non-actors, just real people pulled off the street, because the lack of annunciation on the old lady's disinterest in gaining money is so honest and refreshing. These are things you don't see in movies from the main studios that make the poverty row filmmakers sometimes a lot more interesting and realistic.
Sterling Holloway gives a fine comic performance as a rather effeminate and delightfully eccentric co-worker at the newspaper, and Russell Hopton is fine as Shannon's love interest who has more than a passing interest in what happens concerning the actions of the ruthless Maxwell. Ottola Nesmith, as the newspaper's secretary, will steal your heart as she overhears what is going on concerning the oil well and reacts to it. There's also a fascinating scene with the townsfolk discussing the oil well's sudden success. It is so obvious that these were non-actors, just real people pulled off the street, because the lack of annunciation on the old lady's disinterest in gaining money is so honest and refreshing. These are things you don't see in movies from the main studios that make the poverty row filmmakers sometimes a lot more interesting and realistic.