Headline Crasher
Cast & Crew
Les Goodwins
Frankie Darro
Kane Richmond
Muriel Evans
Richard Tucker
John Merton
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Jimmy Tallant, the son of a U.S. senator who is running for his third term in office, picks up an attractive hitchhiker and speeds to the airport at her request after she says that it is a matter of life or death. They arrive just in time for her to board her plane, and when she thanks Jerry for helping her make the junior prom in time, he is exasperated. Jimmy is ticketed for speeding and taken to a traffic judge, who revokes his license. When the senator's opponent, wealthy newspaper chain owner Atwood, learns from his ace reporter, Larry Deering, about Jimmy's arrest, he orders Larry to manufacture jams for Jimmy to get caught in, so that it will look like the senator cannot even take care of his own son. Larry's subsequent setups are successful, but the senator, realizing Atwood's ploy, is more concerned with the effect of the publicity on Jimmy than on his own campaign. Believing that he is hurting his father's chances, Jimmy leaves to go to his father's lodge up north. Larry learns that the woman Jimmy took to the airport was involved in a bank robbery committed by a mob formed by Tony Scarlotti, who has just been paroled after having served a ten year prison sentence. He then publishes a story that Jimmy has fled the city. The senator's secretary, Edith Arlen, drives to the lodge to warn Jimmy, but finds it empty. Larry's appearance there disturbs her further. As Jimmy approaches the cabin, a man honks at him and stops, then slumps in Jimmy's arms. Jimmy drives the wounded man to a cabin, where Tony and his mob are waiting for Helen, the woman Jimmy drove to the airport, to return after cashing stolen bonds elsewhere. Jimmy sees Tony's picture in a newspaper and tries to leave, but he is stopped. Tony, who swore that he would get even with Senator Tallant, who was the prosecuting attorney who sent him up, now goes to Tallant's lodge. After his mugs overpower Larry, Tony orders Edith to write a telegram asking the senator to come at once. In the midst of a fight, Jimmy, who escaped from the other cabin after spritzing his guard with seltzer water, helps Larry fight the mob, but they are both subdued. Helen arrives and tells Tony who Jimmy is, whereupon a police car arrives. Tony goes to hide and orders Larry and Edith to "make love and make it look real" to fool the police. Seeing them together, the officer is persuaded that everything is alright. When the senator arrives, Jimmy grabs Tony's gun and throws it to Larry, and the thugs are captured. Larry accepts a position on the senator's staff and plans to marry Edith, whereupon Jimmy orders them again to "make love and make it real!"
Director
Les Goodwins
Cast
Frankie Darro
Kane Richmond
Muriel Evans
Richard Tucker
John Merton
Eleanor Stewart
Edward Earle
Harry Harvey
John Ward
Jack Ingram
Charles King
Dick Curtis
Eddie Kaye
Walter Clinton
Henry Hall
Wayne Bumpus
Bunny Bronson
Ray Martin
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
In 1921, Arrow Film Corp. released a film based on the same source, but with a different plot, entitled A Motion to Adjourn, produced by Ben Wilson Productions, directed by Roy Clements and starring Harry Rattenbery and Roy Stewart (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.3718).
