By Violet LeVoit
Back in Circulation
Brief Synopsis
A reporter tries to win her editor's heart by solving a murder case.
Cast & Crew
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Ray Enright
Director
Pat O'brien
Bill Morgan
Joan Blondell
[Timothea] Timmy Blake
Margaret Lindsay
Arline Wade
John Litel
Dr. Eugene Forde
Eddie Acuff
Murphy
Film Details
Also Known As
Angle Shooter
Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Classic Hollywood
Release Date
Sep
25,
1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "Angle Shooter" by Adela Rogers St. Johns in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan (Mar 1937).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
9 reels
Synopsis
Timmy Blake is one of the best investigative reporters on the Chronicle and will stop at nothing to get her story. Bill Morgan, her editor and fiancé, knows this, so when he receives an anonymous note stating that automobile magnate Spencer Wade was poisoned, he sends Timmy to cover the story. Timmy recognizes Wade's widow Arline as the woman she saw with another man in a nightclub the night of Wade's death. She convinces Dr. Evans, the coroner, to stop the funeral and conduct an autopsy. The autopsy proves that Wade was poisoned, and Timmy uncovers some other facts that seem to point to Arline as his murderer. She confronts Arline, who will say nothing. Timmy returns to town to track down the man who was with Arline in the nightclub. She talks to the owner of the club, Sam Sherman, who identifies Arline as a former showgirl, and her escort as gigolo Carlton Whitney. Whitney implies that he and Arline are having an affair. Bill prints the story and Arline sues the paper for libel. In order to beat the suit, Timmy convinces the district attorney to indict Arline for her husband's murder. She will not take the stand and is found guilty, but Timmy is now convinced of her innocence and sets out to discover why she will not defend herself. She approaches Eugene Forde, Wade's doctor, sure that Arline is in love with him and is protecting him. He forces Arline to admit that Whitney was blackmailing her. Wade was insanely jealous, and when he realized that Arline was leaving him, he killed himself, leaving a suicide note that implicated Forde. After Timmy clears up the confusion, Arline and Forde marry.
Director
Ray Enright
Director
Cast
Pat O'brien
Bill Morgan
Joan Blondell
[Timothea] Timmy Blake
Margaret Lindsay
Arline Wade
John Litel
Dr. Eugene Forde
Eddie Acuff
Murphy
Craig Reynolds
Snoop Davis
George E. Stone
Mac
Walter Byron
Carlton Whitney
Ben Welden
Sam Sherman
Regis Toomey
Buck
Raymond Brown
Attorney Bottsford
Gordon Hart
Dr. Hanley
Granville Bates
Dr. Evans
Herbert Rawlinson
District Attorney Saunders
Spencer Charters
The sheriff
Bernice Pilot
Dorinda
Anderson Lawler
Butch Jason
Frank Faylen
James Maxwell
William Hopper
Pete Edington
Milt Kibbee
Pink Thomas
Edward Price
Sid Roark
Howard Hickman
Judge
Veda Ann Borg
Gertrude
Ellen Clancy
Alice
Willard Parker
Ben
John Harron
George
Robert Darrell
Assistant dispatcher
Emmett Vogan
Chief dispatcher
Eddy Chandler
Chief officer
Edward Gargan
Policeman
Mary Doyle
Dolly
Patsy "babe" Kane
Switchboard operator
Stuart Holmes
Barman
Walter Soderling
Assistant undertaker
Spec O'donnell
Newsboy
Jack Bart
Newsboy
Billy Wayne
Driver
Henry Otho
Nelson
Davison Clark
Court clerk
Tom Brower
Foreman
Wilda Bennett
Myrtle Stedman
Myra Mckinney
Jessie Arnold
Crew
Sam Bischoff
Associate Producer
Warren Duff
Screenwriter
Leo F. Forbstein
Music Director
Jo Graham
Dialogue Director
Jesse Hibbs
Assistant Director
Clarence Kolster
Film Editor
Charles Lang
Recording Engineer
Seton I. Miller
Additional Dialogue
Hugh Reticker
Art Director
Howard Shoup
Gowns
Arthur Todd
Photography
Jack L. Warner
Executive Producer
Film Details
Also Known As
Angle Shooter
Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Classic Hollywood
Release Date
Sep
25,
1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "Angle Shooter" by Adela Rogers St. Johns in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan (Mar 1937).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
9 reels
Articles
Back in Circulation -
Fast-talking Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (1940) was the most famous example, but the movies of the 1930s and 40s were full of gimlet-eyed lady reporters who'd get the scoop at any cost - a plausible way to justify a heroine traveling through circles of power usually closed off to women of the era. In this investigative drama written by legendary journalist Adela Rogers St. John, real-life friends Joan Blondell and Pat O'Brien star as a crack reporter (her) and an editor (him) who go to battle over a murder case that is not what it seems to be at first glance. It's unusual to think of Blondell, who excelled at playing hard-boiled chorines, as being the soft heart of a movie, but here, as the reporter whose deft touch with the "human angle" (read: feminine slant), she brings questions about journalistic ethics and human nature into what's otherwise another bullpen romance.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Back in Circulation -
Fast-talking Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (1940) was the most famous example, but the movies of the 1930s and 40s were full of gimlet-eyed lady reporters who'd get the scoop at any cost - a plausible way to justify a heroine traveling through circles of power usually closed off to women of the era. In this investigative drama written by legendary journalist Adela Rogers St. John, real-life friends Joan Blondell and Pat O'Brien star as a crack reporter (her) and an editor (him) who go to battle over a murder case that is not what it seems to be at first glance. It's unusual to think of Blondell, who excelled at playing hard-boiled chorines, as being the soft heart of a movie, but here, as the reporter whose deft touch with the "human angle" (read: feminine slant), she brings questions about journalistic ethics and human nature into what's otherwise another bullpen romance.
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was Angle Shooter. The film's opening titles were presented as newspaper headlines. Although not written by the same writers, the plot of this film is similar to the 1935 Warner Bros. release, Front Page Woman and the 1937 Warner Bros. release, Torchy Blane, the Adventurous Blonde (see below).
