This intriguing crime melodrama opens in 1923 when reporter Ted Lloyd's (Wallace Ford) kid sister is involved in a hit and run and he moves heaven and earth to try to raise the $5,000 needed to send her to a top German specialist. He finally gets the money from racketeer Ed Riggs (Fred "why bother talking when shouting will do"!! Kohler) and as Ted says "I'll never forget this"!!
Eight years later he is the top society gossip reporter of the Great White Way who is in an uphill battle trying to persuade haughty follies beauty Vivyan Parker not to sue for defamation!!
Two ravishing beauties appear as the ying and yang of typical pre-code heroines. Mary Nolan, once a fabulous Ziegfeld beauty, by 1931 was on a downward spiral. She had been banned from the Universal lot for erratic behaviour and now faced a career on poverty row. And judging by her role in this - her reputation proceeded her as she had the minimum of screen time. She plays the beauteous Vivyan and after her own "big scene" (and Mary gives it all the emotion she has) where she has it out with Ted, she is found dead in her apartment and it is that murder that brings back the past to haunt him. A big X marks the spot where the body is found!!
Playing the role of the love struck reporter was Sally Blane, equally beautiful sister of Loretta Young. Her career wasn't as equally fabulous though and while Loretta was being given the star treatment at First National, Sally was languishing at studios like Tiffany and Peerless. Ted finds out that the real murderer is Riggs ("she had it coming - she was a tramp"!!) Ted swears that he will not turn him in, loyalty is too important to him, but someone overhears the conversation - it is Gloria, Ted's little sister, she doesn't think of what she owes Riggs, only that her brother must be saved!! She is played in a pretty wooden way by Joyce Coad who was memorable as the child in Lillian Gish's "The Scarlet Letter". Helen Parrish played Gloria as a little child, she later went on to have a teen career in the late 1930s (playing Deanna Durbin's mean step sister in "First Love" (1939)).
I agree Wallace Ford was great in this movie, he always seemed to have a professionalism that was obviously with him from the start.
Top billed Lew Cody was a very in demand silent star during the early talkies, his suave looks made him a natural as a night club owner or racketeer - here he played Ted's boss. Charles Middleton played a detective chief and even though Clarence Muse was just an elevator operator he always gave a film class. Fred Kohler had a real presence as the tough hood, his whole demeanor commands attention - not to mention his voice!!!
Highly Recommended.
Eight years later he is the top society gossip reporter of the Great White Way who is in an uphill battle trying to persuade haughty follies beauty Vivyan Parker not to sue for defamation!!
Two ravishing beauties appear as the ying and yang of typical pre-code heroines. Mary Nolan, once a fabulous Ziegfeld beauty, by 1931 was on a downward spiral. She had been banned from the Universal lot for erratic behaviour and now faced a career on poverty row. And judging by her role in this - her reputation proceeded her as she had the minimum of screen time. She plays the beauteous Vivyan and after her own "big scene" (and Mary gives it all the emotion she has) where she has it out with Ted, she is found dead in her apartment and it is that murder that brings back the past to haunt him. A big X marks the spot where the body is found!!
Playing the role of the love struck reporter was Sally Blane, equally beautiful sister of Loretta Young. Her career wasn't as equally fabulous though and while Loretta was being given the star treatment at First National, Sally was languishing at studios like Tiffany and Peerless. Ted finds out that the real murderer is Riggs ("she had it coming - she was a tramp"!!) Ted swears that he will not turn him in, loyalty is too important to him, but someone overhears the conversation - it is Gloria, Ted's little sister, she doesn't think of what she owes Riggs, only that her brother must be saved!! She is played in a pretty wooden way by Joyce Coad who was memorable as the child in Lillian Gish's "The Scarlet Letter". Helen Parrish played Gloria as a little child, she later went on to have a teen career in the late 1930s (playing Deanna Durbin's mean step sister in "First Love" (1939)).
I agree Wallace Ford was great in this movie, he always seemed to have a professionalism that was obviously with him from the start.
Top billed Lew Cody was a very in demand silent star during the early talkies, his suave looks made him a natural as a night club owner or racketeer - here he played Ted's boss. Charles Middleton played a detective chief and even though Clarence Muse was just an elevator operator he always gave a film class. Fred Kohler had a real presence as the tough hood, his whole demeanor commands attention - not to mention his voice!!!
Highly Recommended.