Last night's movie was "Headline Shooter"(1933), an excellent pre-Coder about the newsreel business. Before TV, news footage could only be seen at the movie theater, of course. The newsreel cameramen set up their rigs just like they do today, jockeying for position, competing to get the best and closest shots. "Bill Allen" (William Gargan) is one such hotshot. We see him covering a building fire, lined up next to his friendly rival "Mike" (Wallace Ford), an alcoholic from another news agency. Bill has a nose for news and is out the door of his office and on top of whatever is happening the moment a report is radioed in. As the movie opens, he's even creating a story by rigging a beauty contest, bribing it's sponsor with a chance to spend the night with Miss Glendale......super pre-Code alert!
Things really pick up, however, when he meets gal reporter "Jane Mallory" (Frances Dee), who he refers to by her last name. She's covering the fire for her newspaper, and because she's a go-getter like Bill, they hit it off and have dinner. While they're at the restaurant, a huge earthquake strikes. To most, it's a disaster, but to Bill and Mallory, it's news, and they're dodging falling chandeliers and bits of the ceiling as they make their way into the tilting street. This lengthy sequence (10 minutes) reminded me of myself in 1994, when I was an intrepid photographer/videographer, documenting the Northridge earthquake, mostly at the Northridge Meadows apartment complex, along with the late and legendary Dave S. On a side note, the stock earthquake footage in the film (and the special effects) made me nervous, because I don't wanna ever experience anything like that again - way too scary!
But yeah, once Bill the cameraman and Mallory the reporter meet, they're a pair to be reckoned with. Together they cover the case of the Basket Murderess, who's about to fry in The Electric Chair. Then Bill gets a huge break, which might make his career; watching back his footage of the building fire, he sees that he's captured the arsonist (Jack LaRue) in the act of fleeing.
But then he's diverted to an assignment in Mississippi, to cover a huge flood! Man, this is just like today. Disaster after disaster; the news has always been the news, meaning they've always specialised in Bad News. Mallory goes with him, because the flood is near her hometown. By now, Bill is in love with her, but she's engaged to Ralph Bellamy, a Mississippi businessman. But they meet, and Bellamy likes Bill. He doesn't see him as a romantic rival, and he tips him off about the cause of the flood: deliberately shoddy cement construction. Cheap crumbly cement was used on the levee, and when the levee breaks, got no place to roam. Mean ol' levee, taught me to weep and moan...
Wait a minute, what's goin' on? How did Robert Plant get in here? Please escort him out, thank you.
Now where were we? Oh yes, so Ralph Bellamy is giving Bill and Mallory a scoop, that the crooked cement contractor is responsible for the deadly flood. Bill films Bellamy crumbling the cement chunks with his fingers, showing how the levee gave way, but while he is packing his gear to leave, the Mayor shows up, accompanied by his political honchos, asking (i.e. demanding) him not to develop his film. The reason, they say, is that it will ruin the Mayor's career. Bill retorts that "people have been killed! The truth is important!", but Ralph Bellamy tells him "you don't understand how things work, Bill. You'd better back off." Even Mallory promises not to publish her story.
This is another 90 year old flick, but it goes to show how nothing has changed. Bill is a crusading cameraman who puts "truth" (i.e. photographic evidence) ahead of all and sundry. But, as the script shows, there are nuances to truth, and in this case, it wasn't what Bill was expecting. He thinks the Mayor intervened because he's corrupt, but when he goes ahead and develops his film and exposes the levee construction fraud, the Mayor commits suicide. It turns out that he didn't know the cement contractor was a crook, and he felt responsible for the flood deaths, so he killed himself. Now Bill feels guilty, too. As he learns, there are times when you hold back on a story. But he's gotta keep shooting the news; it's in his blood. As for Mallory, she's about to retire to marry Ralph Bellamy, but then Bill gets a chance to finally bust the arson ring that involved Jack LaRue (a fantastic actor, btw.) Mallory gets the urge back; like Bill, news is who she is. She unretires to cover the story, but then the arson gang kidnaps her, and Bill and Bellamy team up to come to her rescue. In the end, Bellamy realizes that Bill is the right guy for Mallory, not him, and he steps aside. I wouldn't have revealed that, but you knew it was coming and there's a whole lot more I haven't told you. "Headline Shooter" is so good that we're giving it Two Huge Thumbs Up, keeping in mind that it's still a medium budget B-movie and not a major release. But it's really good, and it's very highly recommended so check it out. The picture is sharp but not razor. ////
The previous night, we began another chapter serial, entitled "Daredevils of the Red Circle"(1939). The concept of the Megalomaniacal Criminal Mastermind was in vogue at that time; a one-man crime wave who could singlehandedly bring a city to it's knees (with the help of henchmen, of course). I don't know if the prototype was spawned by the first World War and the subsequent rise of Hitler, or the onrushing dominance of science, or all of those things, but the movies ran with the idea, and in this serial, an escaped convict who goes by his prisoner number 39013 is out to get the man who imprisoned him. 39013 spent fifteen long years in the joint and he's really cheesed off about it, enough to kill innocent people, but he likes to taunt the authorities by tipping them off in advance, because he knows they can't stop him. He's an evil genius. So, as the movie opens, his target is a circus act of daredevil high-diving brothers (Charles Quigley, David Sharpe and Bruce Bennett, all athlete/actors).
39013 alerts the press and the cops that he's gonna kill them during a performance, but the brothers go on anyway (the show must go on, donchaknow) and as they begin their combination high-wire and diving act, the pool they dive into bursts into flame. 390 has filled it with a flammable liquid. A conflagration results (with incredible special effects for 1939) and the youngest brother is killed. He was only 12 years old.
The other three brothers, all young adults, resign from performing and join forces with the law. They are out to avenge their little brother with the assistance of his dog Tuffy. Now, 390 has announced his latest target, an undersea tunnel connecting Catalina Island with the shore. It's the equivalent of the Chunnel, and he's gonna crack it with an offshore oil drilling rig, just when the engineer's granddaughter (Carol Landis) is presiding over the grand opening. This time, 390 has gone all out. He's impersonating the engineer with a rubber face mask and a fake English accent. And, he's got the engineer imprisoned in his secret basement laboratory! Apparently, though we don't yet know the details, the engineer is the man who sent him to prison. Now he's about to get his revenge. One of the Red Circle acrobats rides into the Catalina tunnel to check it for cracks, because as always, 390 has pre-announced his plans. and just as Carol Landis is riding in with her entourage, the ceiling in the tunnel cracks from the drilling, and the seawater rushes in. They're all gonna drown! So ends chapter one, and it's really good stuff. On the basis of that chapter alone, the series gets Two Big Thumbs Up, with the potential for Two Huge. It's highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp. ////
That's all I know for tonight. My blogging music is Atomic Rooster once again, and my late night is Bruckner's 4th by Karajan. I hope you had a nice Saturday and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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