An early talkie, and boy, does it show, with the static camerawork and uncertain sound recording. But it's a lively newspaper comedy-drama, energetically directed by Gregory La Cava and conveying lots of big--city-news atmosphere. Robert Armstrong, not the suavest or handsomest leading man, is a "Front Page"-style newspaperman pursuing an opioid story and squabbling with not just his editors but his wife, Carol (not yet Carole) Lombard, who's only 20 or 21 here and not the incandescent presence she later became. Sam Hardy's a menacing thug, Gabby Hayes another newsman, and, most intriguingly, Cupid Ainsworth is the jacket-and-tie-wearing lady who dispenses advice to the lovelorn, along with wisecracks. There's much drunken behavior, of the type once considered hilarious, and it's fast-paced and lively. I kept wanting Armstrong to turn into Lee Tracy, and I wish it were more audible, but at 65 minutes, it doesn't wear out its welcome.
18 Reviews
Drunken reporter versus the stupidest drug dealer in the history of the world with Carole Lombard as a tall potted plant
AlsExGal19 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I'd give this one a 5/10 if it wasn't for some of the unique things going on. Some of it is just plain cheeky. For example, I think the name "Big News" was given to the film to confuse people with the play "Good News" that was made into a film the following year. The opening score even has some of the music from "Good News" in it, though cleverly disguised.
This one is an early talkie, plus it apparently was made on the cheap at Pathe, so the entire film basically takes place in two rooms - The news room of driven but often drunken reporter Steve Banks (Robert Armstrong), and a speakeasy that is a front (it must be, there are never any customers!) for a drug dealing operation run by Joe Reno (Sam Hardy).
Banks likes to go drinking with O'Neill (Wade Botellier), a drunken discredited and thus ex reporter, and Steve's absentee home life has his reporter wife (Carole Lombard as Margaret) coming to the newsroom to tell Steve she is calling their marriage quits. Meanwhile, Joe Reno is worried that Banks is going to expose his dope peddling operation, and calls the newspaper to say he's been drunk and disorderly and bothering the nonexistent customers at his completely illegal business. The paper fires him.
Banks reacts by going to Reno's speakeasy with his drunken friend (WHY DOES HE NEED THIS GUY?) and HE ACTUALLY LETS HIM IN!!!. Reno then unintentionally tips his hand to Banks who gets the evidence he needs and writes up an expose on Reno's operation. This dawns on Reno AFTER Banks leaves.
Banks has been fired. Reno knows this. For some reason he goes to where Banks used to work - Banks might have given the story to a completely different paper and never returned - and frames him for a crime of which he is easily absolved. Plus Reno is seen by everybody including Banks AND the cops AND everybody knows Reno had a motive to do what he did. What an idiot! I'll let you watch the terrible print that is available and see what happens.
Why am I disrespecting Carole Lombard? Because she is a mere shadow of the actress she'll be just five years later. But part of it really isn't her fault. The lines she is given are ridiculous and actually sound like the stuff of title cards from the 1910s. She is either tall statuesque and silent or overacting hysterically. But she improves tremendously in just this year. Her next film, Racketeer, is much better. But you would never guess by this one performance that she is the member of the cast people are most likely to remember almost 90 years later.
There is one weird angle that you would never see after the production code. I guess to fill up time there is a part for an overweight lonely hearts reporter - Helen Ainsworth as Vera - who dresses in men's' clothing and does a kind of risqué vaudeville comedy routine between scenes to lighten the mood. The paper editor warns her "Don't be gay on my time!". Only in the precode era, and probably only in this first full year of talking film. Recommended for the goofiness of it all.
This one is an early talkie, plus it apparently was made on the cheap at Pathe, so the entire film basically takes place in two rooms - The news room of driven but often drunken reporter Steve Banks (Robert Armstrong), and a speakeasy that is a front (it must be, there are never any customers!) for a drug dealing operation run by Joe Reno (Sam Hardy).
Banks likes to go drinking with O'Neill (Wade Botellier), a drunken discredited and thus ex reporter, and Steve's absentee home life has his reporter wife (Carole Lombard as Margaret) coming to the newsroom to tell Steve she is calling their marriage quits. Meanwhile, Joe Reno is worried that Banks is going to expose his dope peddling operation, and calls the newspaper to say he's been drunk and disorderly and bothering the nonexistent customers at his completely illegal business. The paper fires him.
Banks reacts by going to Reno's speakeasy with his drunken friend (WHY DOES HE NEED THIS GUY?) and HE ACTUALLY LETS HIM IN!!!. Reno then unintentionally tips his hand to Banks who gets the evidence he needs and writes up an expose on Reno's operation. This dawns on Reno AFTER Banks leaves.
Banks has been fired. Reno knows this. For some reason he goes to where Banks used to work - Banks might have given the story to a completely different paper and never returned - and frames him for a crime of which he is easily absolved. Plus Reno is seen by everybody including Banks AND the cops AND everybody knows Reno had a motive to do what he did. What an idiot! I'll let you watch the terrible print that is available and see what happens.
Why am I disrespecting Carole Lombard? Because she is a mere shadow of the actress she'll be just five years later. But part of it really isn't her fault. The lines she is given are ridiculous and actually sound like the stuff of title cards from the 1910s. She is either tall statuesque and silent or overacting hysterically. But she improves tremendously in just this year. Her next film, Racketeer, is much better. But you would never guess by this one performance that she is the member of the cast people are most likely to remember almost 90 years later.
There is one weird angle that you would never see after the production code. I guess to fill up time there is a part for an overweight lonely hearts reporter - Helen Ainsworth as Vera - who dresses in men's' clothing and does a kind of risqué vaudeville comedy routine between scenes to lighten the mood. The paper editor warns her "Don't be gay on my time!". Only in the precode era, and probably only in this first full year of talking film. Recommended for the goofiness of it all.
Precode melodrama
joeshoe8919 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This adult (for it's day) themed drama of a hard drinking reporter (who is also hard brawling) Robert Armstrong and his wife Carol(e) Lombard who is also a reporter and wants to divorce him is faced paced and contains not only speakeasies and drinking but a plot about the murder of a drug addict and her dealer. The drug plot line doesn't really do much but make the whole thing a bit more sleazy. The killer is caught because he is recorded on a cylinder when he doesn't know it. The reporter's boss is the murder victim. The reporter is framed by the murderer who is there at the newspaper where he commits the crime while another one of the reporter's bosses is on the phone! All ends well when Carol(e) discovers that Armstrong has switched to tea from booze in his flask which leads to a loving happy ending (he gets a raise too!).
Big News no big deal
bkoganbing12 April 2014
Big News casts Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard as a pair of reporters married to each other but working for rival papers. If you expect to see the gifted comic Lombard from such future classics as My Man Godfrey and Twentieth Century Big News will disappoint you greatly. This one is strictly the show for Armstrong.
Armstrong drives his editor Charles Sellon to distraction with his drinking and carousing and it certainly is wearing on his marriage to Lombard. But as he says speakeasies are great place to pick up stories and Armstrong has been successful.
A particular speakeasy owner Sam Hardy is the leader of a narcotics ring in their town and Armstrong has the goods on him. Hardy tries something stupid, he goes to the newspaper office and murders the editor and frames Armstrong for the crime. But naturally our intrepid reporter is too smart for Hardy.
Big News is little more than a photographed stage play and the original play was no world beater either. It never holds your interest in the way such other films like Detective Story, Dead End, Rope, or Rear Window do that are all almost exclusively on one set.
Big News is directed by Greogry LaCava who also did My Man Godfrey. Whatever he brought out in Lombard for that film stayed buried here. In fairness to Carole, she was not given much to work with.
Still it's 1929 and movies were learning to talk. Films like Big News show how much was left to learn.
Armstrong drives his editor Charles Sellon to distraction with his drinking and carousing and it certainly is wearing on his marriage to Lombard. But as he says speakeasies are great place to pick up stories and Armstrong has been successful.
A particular speakeasy owner Sam Hardy is the leader of a narcotics ring in their town and Armstrong has the goods on him. Hardy tries something stupid, he goes to the newspaper office and murders the editor and frames Armstrong for the crime. But naturally our intrepid reporter is too smart for Hardy.
Big News is little more than a photographed stage play and the original play was no world beater either. It never holds your interest in the way such other films like Detective Story, Dead End, Rope, or Rear Window do that are all almost exclusively on one set.
Big News is directed by Greogry LaCava who also did My Man Godfrey. Whatever he brought out in Lombard for that film stayed buried here. In fairness to Carole, she was not given much to work with.
Still it's 1929 and movies were learning to talk. Films like Big News show how much was left to learn.
A most peculiar way to portray alcoholism.
planktonrules24 June 2013
Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard star in this early talky about the newspaper business. Armstrong plays an obnoxious drunk who, inexplicably, Lombard loves. He constantly shoots off his mouth and you wonder why the paper puts up with him. By the end of the film, however, he's redeemed himself and shows that he's a darn find newspaper man.
The film is odd in the way it portrays Armstrong as a relatively high-functioning and lovable alcoholic. In some ways, it seems to excuse his addiction and presents a very odd and convoluted message. It's also odd in that one of the characters seems to be that of a very manly lesbian. Both are things you never would have seen in a Hollywood film once the toughened Production Code was enacted in mid-1934--when alcoholism needed to be punished and lesbians needed to vanish.
So is the film any good? Well, in spots it's quite good and in others it lets the viewer down. A few of the performances are poor (such as when the murder is discovered near the end of the film) but the overall plot is engaging and worth seeing. But, for 1929, it's actually quite good--had it been made a year or two later, I would have given it a slightly lower score.
For folks like me who simply watch too many movies, it also was a thrill to see Tom Kennedy play a SMART policeman—as he almost always played very stupid ones!
The film is odd in the way it portrays Armstrong as a relatively high-functioning and lovable alcoholic. In some ways, it seems to excuse his addiction and presents a very odd and convoluted message. It's also odd in that one of the characters seems to be that of a very manly lesbian. Both are things you never would have seen in a Hollywood film once the toughened Production Code was enacted in mid-1934--when alcoholism needed to be punished and lesbians needed to vanish.
So is the film any good? Well, in spots it's quite good and in others it lets the viewer down. A few of the performances are poor (such as when the murder is discovered near the end of the film) but the overall plot is engaging and worth seeing. But, for 1929, it's actually quite good--had it been made a year or two later, I would have given it a slightly lower score.
For folks like me who simply watch too many movies, it also was a thrill to see Tom Kennedy play a SMART policeman—as he almost always played very stupid ones!
Dumb Drunk Film
arfdawg-11 April 2014
Steve Banks is a hard-drinking newspaper reporter.
His wife Margaret, a reporter for a rival paper, threatens to divorce him if he doesn't quit the drinking that is compromising his career.
Steve pursues a story about drug dealers even when his editor fires him.
When the editor is murdered, Steve is accused of the killing.
But Steve has an ace up his sleeve that may save him from the electric chair.
Does this sound like a comedy? That's where IMDb puts it. It's a weird and dumb movie.
His wife Margaret, a reporter for a rival paper, threatens to divorce him if he doesn't quit the drinking that is compromising his career.
Steve pursues a story about drug dealers even when his editor fires him.
When the editor is murdered, Steve is accused of the killing.
But Steve has an ace up his sleeve that may save him from the electric chair.
Does this sound like a comedy? That's where IMDb puts it. It's a weird and dumb movie.
Murder mystery with zingers
lge-946-2254873 February 2015
The plot elements of this movie, in my mind, take second place to the repartee, or verbal fencing, that takes place among various characters. One character is always needling another; each tries to top the others in snarky insults. I suppose this is where the "comedy" label comes from.
For instance, there's the repartee among the various reporters on Robert Armstrong's newspaper. Cupid Ainsworth (a large fat woman) comes in, saying she's late because "I couldn't find a cab." Armstrong responds, "You mean you couldn't find one to fit you."
Ainsworth gives as good as she gets, however. When Armstrong comes back into the office after being bawled out by his wife, she says, "Well, well, well! Here comes the lion with the lamb's haircut!" (Ainsworth gives a very memorable performance in this movie, in my opinion.)
When Armstrong goes into the editor's office to get bawled out, Ainsworth cries, "Hold on boys, we're going around a curve!" (To me, that was better than Bette Davis' famous line, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!")
Tom Kennedy is in the movie, playing a cop. (I always think of Kennedy as Gahagan, from the Torchy Blane movies.) Armstrong refers to Kennedy as "Flatfoot," and he growls, "Lay off the puppies!"
Armstrong and his even-more-drunken buddy get into a battle of wits in a speakeasy with members of a drug-dealing gang. Armstrong says, "I recently heard of two hop-slingers who were punished by being put in a barrel with a skunk. Fortunately, the skunk died." His buddy responds, "He was probably bored to death by their repartee."
I think this movie has a quite adult sensibility as regards inter-personal relationships and conversation. (Adult meaning "adult," not "dirty.") It's not a Pollyanna or Hollywood sensibility -- there's friction and oneupmanship among various characters. That makes a refreshing change. Kennedy's cop role is also more adult than his slapstick-ish Gahagan roles. I like the whole tone and atmosphere of this movie.
I always enjoy seeing Armstrong, who is perhaps best known as the impresario who brought King Kong back from his island. He was a quite prolific actor, and always interesting.
George ("Gabby") Hayes is also here briefly, and I'm always fascinated to see him in a movie, beardless and in an adult, not slapstick-ish role.
In the end, the murder is pinned on the actual perpetrator (yay!), and Armstrong and his wife are reconciled. I like a movie with a happy ending, and to see justice is done.
This movie, to me, is enjoyable, adult, and fun every time I see it.
For instance, there's the repartee among the various reporters on Robert Armstrong's newspaper. Cupid Ainsworth (a large fat woman) comes in, saying she's late because "I couldn't find a cab." Armstrong responds, "You mean you couldn't find one to fit you."
Ainsworth gives as good as she gets, however. When Armstrong comes back into the office after being bawled out by his wife, she says, "Well, well, well! Here comes the lion with the lamb's haircut!" (Ainsworth gives a very memorable performance in this movie, in my opinion.)
When Armstrong goes into the editor's office to get bawled out, Ainsworth cries, "Hold on boys, we're going around a curve!" (To me, that was better than Bette Davis' famous line, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!")
Tom Kennedy is in the movie, playing a cop. (I always think of Kennedy as Gahagan, from the Torchy Blane movies.) Armstrong refers to Kennedy as "Flatfoot," and he growls, "Lay off the puppies!"
Armstrong and his even-more-drunken buddy get into a battle of wits in a speakeasy with members of a drug-dealing gang. Armstrong says, "I recently heard of two hop-slingers who were punished by being put in a barrel with a skunk. Fortunately, the skunk died." His buddy responds, "He was probably bored to death by their repartee."
I think this movie has a quite adult sensibility as regards inter-personal relationships and conversation. (Adult meaning "adult," not "dirty.") It's not a Pollyanna or Hollywood sensibility -- there's friction and oneupmanship among various characters. That makes a refreshing change. Kennedy's cop role is also more adult than his slapstick-ish Gahagan roles. I like the whole tone and atmosphere of this movie.
I always enjoy seeing Armstrong, who is perhaps best known as the impresario who brought King Kong back from his island. He was a quite prolific actor, and always interesting.
George ("Gabby") Hayes is also here briefly, and I'm always fascinated to see him in a movie, beardless and in an adult, not slapstick-ish role.
In the end, the murder is pinned on the actual perpetrator (yay!), and Armstrong and his wife are reconciled. I like a movie with a happy ending, and to see justice is done.
This movie, to me, is enjoyable, adult, and fun every time I see it.
Big News review
JoeytheBrit5 May 2020
A semi-alcoholic news reporter finds himself suspected of the murder of his editor. Lively but slight tale that might have benefited from a stronger leading man than Robert Armstrong. Doubtful that his sloppy suit-and-tie-wearing female colleague would have made it into the picture post '34.
For 1929 - Dialogue is Fast and Snappy!!
kidboots7 November 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Even though Carole Lombard was steadily catching the public's eye and picking up good notices she realised there was no long term future for her at Pathe. They were too busy grooming Ann Harding and Constance Bennett into stars and from the look of 1929 it seemed as though she and Robert Armstrong were going to be developed into a team!! Fortunately by the next year she was at Paramount and destined for better things.
I don't think there would have been much incitement to seriously portray the effects of alcoholism at the height of prohibition - and with Robert Armstrong as the star there were going to be just as many laughs and wisecracks as serious moments. But no one told Carole and, surprisingly, she gives the film it's thoughtfulness.
This is a "Battle of the Sexes" between husband and wife, "rival reporters" Margaret and Steve Banks - Margaret is the dedicated reporter of the Morning Herald who has just scooped her husband out of a "love nest, chorus girl, dope ring" story, he has just been fired by the Express because of too much time spent in speakeasys!!! The "dope" angle is more interesting - yes, in pre-coders there is often references to dope, hop heads, snowbirds etc but not to base the main story of a movie about it - unless it was one of those under the counter exploitation movies!! After being sacked once and for all, Steve storms out of Addison's office and makes good his promise to find a story that "will turn this town on it's ear" - the confession of a chorus girl Rose Perreti, exposing a big dope ring but soon after when Addison is found dead in his office all fingers point to Steve who has been set up by racketeer Joe Reno (Sam Hardy) who wants Steve out of the picture forever!!
Special mention goes to "blink and you miss him" Lew Ayres as a copy boy. And Cupid Ainsworth who has the best role in the film as Vera, the paper's resident "sob sister". She has wise cracks for every occasion and bats off derogatory comments about her weight like Babe Ruth. There is even a conversation about being gay - Vera, with her very masculine looks and style of dress, is told to go and "be gay like I know you can be"!!!
I don't think there would have been much incitement to seriously portray the effects of alcoholism at the height of prohibition - and with Robert Armstrong as the star there were going to be just as many laughs and wisecracks as serious moments. But no one told Carole and, surprisingly, she gives the film it's thoughtfulness.
This is a "Battle of the Sexes" between husband and wife, "rival reporters" Margaret and Steve Banks - Margaret is the dedicated reporter of the Morning Herald who has just scooped her husband out of a "love nest, chorus girl, dope ring" story, he has just been fired by the Express because of too much time spent in speakeasys!!! The "dope" angle is more interesting - yes, in pre-coders there is often references to dope, hop heads, snowbirds etc but not to base the main story of a movie about it - unless it was one of those under the counter exploitation movies!! After being sacked once and for all, Steve storms out of Addison's office and makes good his promise to find a story that "will turn this town on it's ear" - the confession of a chorus girl Rose Perreti, exposing a big dope ring but soon after when Addison is found dead in his office all fingers point to Steve who has been set up by racketeer Joe Reno (Sam Hardy) who wants Steve out of the picture forever!!
Special mention goes to "blink and you miss him" Lew Ayres as a copy boy. And Cupid Ainsworth who has the best role in the film as Vera, the paper's resident "sob sister". She has wise cracks for every occasion and bats off derogatory comments about her weight like Babe Ruth. There is even a conversation about being gay - Vera, with her very masculine looks and style of dress, is told to go and "be gay like I know you can be"!!!
Entertaining, corny newspaper saga
lor_22 September 2023
Robert Armstrong does a fine job heading up this familiar portrait of an old-time newspaper office, with all the cliches, stereotypes and corny wise cracks preserved intact, for a Talkie now nearly a century old. Carole Lombard has a relatively uninteresting role as his fellow reporter wife (threatening him with divorce due to his drunkenness), and a talented but obscure supporting cast fill out the canvas for a fun hour.
Based on a George Brooks stage play, and not opened out even a little bit for the big screen, the show has colorful if hokey characters, ranging from the old skinflint of an editor, the meddling advertising chief, an overweight advice columnist lady giving Armstrong a hard time, a poetic colleague who is always inebriated and a smoothie gangster who Robert is out to expose to get the story of a lifetime.
The set-up footage of lighthearted jokes and jibes lets director Leo McCarey pile up the laughs for what seems like a long time, before the show gets serious with murder, framing of Armstrong and some snappy (if improbable) plot twists to wrap up the entire story in a neat little package. For a modern audience, the early talkie seems stilted, with its master-shot photography (no closeups allowed) and static quality, but its earthiness is still a treat.
Based on a George Brooks stage play, and not opened out even a little bit for the big screen, the show has colorful if hokey characters, ranging from the old skinflint of an editor, the meddling advertising chief, an overweight advice columnist lady giving Armstrong a hard time, a poetic colleague who is always inebriated and a smoothie gangster who Robert is out to expose to get the story of a lifetime.
The set-up footage of lighthearted jokes and jibes lets director Leo McCarey pile up the laughs for what seems like a long time, before the show gets serious with murder, framing of Armstrong and some snappy (if improbable) plot twists to wrap up the entire story in a neat little package. For a modern audience, the early talkie seems stilted, with its master-shot photography (no closeups allowed) and static quality, but its earthiness is still a treat.
If newspapers could talk, they'd talk faster than this!
mark.waltz11 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
The snap, crackle and pop you are hearing isn't your cereal bowl. It's the soundtrack of this nearly 90 year old film that is trying really fast to capture the magic of the Broadway play "The Front Page". The only thing it really offers is a glimpse into the early days of sound films and early appearances of future stars Robert Armstrong ("King Kong") and 30's superstar Carole Lombard, here without that unique "e" at the end of her first name.
This deals with the daily goings on at an oddly run news room where there seems to be more drinking going on and playing around than actual journalism. Static camera work can't help a lot of pre-code dialog, much of it recited by an initially funny butch newspaper woman who is told by the editor not to be so "gay". After a while, this obvious novice becomes a real pest. Lombard really gets nothing juicy to work with as Armstrong's divorce seeking wife, while he really overacts.
This deals with the daily goings on at an oddly run news room where there seems to be more drinking going on and playing around than actual journalism. Static camera work can't help a lot of pre-code dialog, much of it recited by an initially funny butch newspaper woman who is told by the editor not to be so "gay". After a while, this obvious novice becomes a real pest. Lombard really gets nothing juicy to work with as Armstrong's divorce seeking wife, while he really overacts.
A comedic talkie about the news business
leftistcritic8 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Tonight as I was looking through what movie I would watch next, I picked this movie. I was unfamiliar with the cast of this film, with those playing the characters, Steve Banks (played by Robert Armstrong), Steve's wife and lady reporter (played by Carole Lombard), Hansel (played by Louis Payne), O'Neill (played by Wade Boteler), Addison (played by Charles Sellon), Reno (played by Sam Hardy), Ryan (played by Tom Kennedy), District Attorney Phelps (played by Warner Richmond), the society editor named Vera (played by Helen Ainsworth), Deke (played by James Donlan), reporter Hoffman (played by George "Gabby" Hayes), another reporter (played by Vernon Steele), the coroner (played by Clarence Wilson), Birn (played by Colin Chase), and the Telegraph editor (played by Robert Dudley). This film started off a bit slow, with Steve Banks at the bottom, only protected by one of the editors, as the editor-in-chief (Addison), wanting to fire him. The gangster, Reno, wants Banks fired so he can continue the shady activities around his speakeasy. He gets his wish as he is fired for disrupting the paper's advertising revenue, with Reno as the advertiser and a gangster at the same time. Banks' wife says she will leave him, tired of his rough newspaper life which involves deep alcoholism, for justified reasons, so they are ready to divorce.
Banks and his continuously drunk reporter friend O'Neill, I believe, go to Reno's speakeasy with Banks bluffing he has a confession of crimes Reno and his ilk have engaged in, from the mouth of a woman whom has been imprisoned. This shocks Reno and he tells his henchmen to kill her, shut her up. But Banks, despite being fired, still wants to get a story. He gets the confession alright and brings it to the editor-in-chief while Reno stays in the room of another editor, saying he is discussing advertising. But this is suspicious. Soon the second and last part of the movie goes into motion.
The police and then the district attorney accuse Banks of killing the editor-in-chief, bringing together flimsy evidence, like the fact he was supposedly the last person talking to this editor, a cut natural gas line and a knife he left at the bar of Reno's speakeasy. Banks' wife, however, comes to his defense while others are skeptical but Banks convinces them that Reno actually killed the editor (who died not from asphyxiation but from a blow to the head, which disqualifies him from murder already) and destroyed the confession in order to protect his criminal activities. The film ends with Reno in handcuffs and Banks working on the paper again.
This film didn't have the social commentary which similar films, those by Frank Capra, have but it does have something going for it, the fact that it is an effective drama and comedy. The quips by characters made me laugh as many times as I would laugh for a Mel Brooks film. The occasional racist wording like "Chinaman" was off-putting and the slowness of the movie made it less enjoyable. However I would still rate this film as an 8 out of 10. With that my review of this film concludes.
Banks and his continuously drunk reporter friend O'Neill, I believe, go to Reno's speakeasy with Banks bluffing he has a confession of crimes Reno and his ilk have engaged in, from the mouth of a woman whom has been imprisoned. This shocks Reno and he tells his henchmen to kill her, shut her up. But Banks, despite being fired, still wants to get a story. He gets the confession alright and brings it to the editor-in-chief while Reno stays in the room of another editor, saying he is discussing advertising. But this is suspicious. Soon the second and last part of the movie goes into motion.
The police and then the district attorney accuse Banks of killing the editor-in-chief, bringing together flimsy evidence, like the fact he was supposedly the last person talking to this editor, a cut natural gas line and a knife he left at the bar of Reno's speakeasy. Banks' wife, however, comes to his defense while others are skeptical but Banks convinces them that Reno actually killed the editor (who died not from asphyxiation but from a blow to the head, which disqualifies him from murder already) and destroyed the confession in order to protect his criminal activities. The film ends with Reno in handcuffs and Banks working on the paper again.
This film didn't have the social commentary which similar films, those by Frank Capra, have but it does have something going for it, the fact that it is an effective drama and comedy. The quips by characters made me laugh as many times as I would laugh for a Mel Brooks film. The occasional racist wording like "Chinaman" was off-putting and the slowness of the movie made it less enjoyable. However I would still rate this film as an 8 out of 10. With that my review of this film concludes.
I really want to give this movie 6.5.
JohnHowardReid19 January 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Director: GREGORY LA CAVA. Dialogue director: Frank Reicher. Screenplay: Walter De Leon. Dialogue: Frank Reicher. Adapted by Jack Jungmeyer from the stage play by George S. Brooks. Photography: Arthur Miller. Production manager: Lucky Humberstone. Assistant director: Paul Jones. Sound recording: D.A. Cutler, Clarence M. Wickes.
Copyright 26 September 1929 by Pathé Exchange. New York opening at the Colony: 5 October 1929. 7 reels. 6,028 feet. 66 minutes. Available on a 9/10 Grapevine Video DVD.
COMMENT: Like the stage play, the whole action of the movie takes place on the one set. Admittedly, it's quite a large set, much bigger than a theatre could handle, but it's not very glamorous and does tend to out-stay its welcome. Nonetheless, I'm told that this is what a real newspaper office actually looked like back in 1929. More surprising still is the information that the reporters and their behavior are accurately depicted. Certainly - with a notable exception - the movie is competently acted. The exception, sad to say, is Carole Lombard who does absolutely nothing with her role at all, and looks about as glamorous as a street cleaner. Maybe she could point a finger at the wardrobe mistress and photographer, Arthur Miller, for her drab appearance, but her lack of spark and animation can surely be blamed on the director, Gregory La Cava. Yet some years later, she and La Cava got together for a movie that turned out to be the highlight of both their careers - My Man Godfrey (1936). But while La Cava's handling here is no more than routine, cameraman Miller brilliantly overcomes many early talkie, sound-proof booth problems.
Copyright 26 September 1929 by Pathé Exchange. New York opening at the Colony: 5 October 1929. 7 reels. 6,028 feet. 66 minutes. Available on a 9/10 Grapevine Video DVD.
COMMENT: Like the stage play, the whole action of the movie takes place on the one set. Admittedly, it's quite a large set, much bigger than a theatre could handle, but it's not very glamorous and does tend to out-stay its welcome. Nonetheless, I'm told that this is what a real newspaper office actually looked like back in 1929. More surprising still is the information that the reporters and their behavior are accurately depicted. Certainly - with a notable exception - the movie is competently acted. The exception, sad to say, is Carole Lombard who does absolutely nothing with her role at all, and looks about as glamorous as a street cleaner. Maybe she could point a finger at the wardrobe mistress and photographer, Arthur Miller, for her drab appearance, but her lack of spark and animation can surely be blamed on the director, Gregory La Cava. Yet some years later, she and La Cava got together for a movie that turned out to be the highlight of both their careers - My Man Godfrey (1936). But while La Cava's handling here is no more than routine, cameraman Miller brilliantly overcomes many early talkie, sound-proof booth problems.
I've seen better high school plays...
nbrice1811 April 2022
Since TCM seems to be showing the same movies over and over lately I've been watching a few older movies on DDD. To my knowledge this is the oldest movie I've ever attempted to watch. It was horrid. This wasn't acting, it was shouting.
For all the precode and post code lovers; silly, sophomoric topics and characters don't make a good movie. 99% of the best movies were out during the code.
For all the precode and post code lovers; silly, sophomoric topics and characters don't make a good movie. 99% of the best movies were out during the code.
1929 Was Not a Good Year for Movies
view_and_review26 February 2024
I would say that 1931 was the year movies got remarkably better. By then the sound and picture quality was better and it seems the acting and the scripts made the leap forward too. 1929 was so early in the talkie stages that I don't think studios, directors, actors, or even writers were prepared for it. Because of that there were a lot of movies between 1929 and 1930 with bad plots and terrible acting.
Take "Big News" for instance. This movie was OK, but I think it would've been loads better if done a few years later.
The notable actors were Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard. They played a married couple and both were reporters but at different newspapers. Robert Armstrong played Steve Banks, a reporter working at his sixteenth paper. He'd been fired from the other fifteen rags because of his drinking problem. When he was sober he was a decent newspaperman.
He was on the trail of a dope pusher named Joe Reno (Sam Hardy), except he couldn't stay sober long enough to gather anything on Reno. His only chance to 1.) save his marriage, 2.) break a big story, and 3.) save his job, was to sober up and do what he knew how to do.
As for a plot, "Big News" wasn't bad. The execution, however, left a lot to be desired, but I think that was the most that could be expected back then.
Free on Tubi.
Take "Big News" for instance. This movie was OK, but I think it would've been loads better if done a few years later.
The notable actors were Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard. They played a married couple and both were reporters but at different newspapers. Robert Armstrong played Steve Banks, a reporter working at his sixteenth paper. He'd been fired from the other fifteen rags because of his drinking problem. When he was sober he was a decent newspaperman.
He was on the trail of a dope pusher named Joe Reno (Sam Hardy), except he couldn't stay sober long enough to gather anything on Reno. His only chance to 1.) save his marriage, 2.) break a big story, and 3.) save his job, was to sober up and do what he knew how to do.
As for a plot, "Big News" wasn't bad. The execution, however, left a lot to be desired, but I think that was the most that could be expected back then.
Free on Tubi.
believable lead
Cristi_Ciopron6 May 2016
Warning: Spoilers
A crime comedy drama with R. Armstrong and Carol Lombard (before a 3rd vowel was added), she has more of a supporting part, which she plays in her dignified way, a bit otherworldly, spectral, very classy, her generic character in her early sound movies, a distinguished young woman; she also seemed determined on her ascending way to stardom. The supporting cast is very good.
The life at a newspaper headquarter is shown as cool, but isn't glamorized. The age was more stoic, and the life's hardships are confessed, admitted, allowed, expressed; the sets show a dirty editorial office, with the throng, garbage and untidiness, and the threat of unemployment. The leading actor plays a reporter fond of his profession and of drinking.
Armstrong, a very believable leading player, could be a dynamo, even as a drained journalist. I know that his reputation paled, faded afterward, which is unfair. He was credible in each leading role he has made.
The movie, co-written by DeLeon, is exciting and refreshing. The _subjacent play seems good.
The life at a newspaper headquarter is shown as cool, but isn't glamorized. The age was more stoic, and the life's hardships are confessed, admitted, allowed, expressed; the sets show a dirty editorial office, with the throng, garbage and untidiness, and the threat of unemployment. The leading actor plays a reporter fond of his profession and of drinking.
Armstrong, a very believable leading player, could be a dynamo, even as a drained journalist. I know that his reputation paled, faded afterward, which is unfair. He was credible in each leading role he has made.
The movie, co-written by DeLeon, is exciting and refreshing. The _subjacent play seems good.
Big News
CinemaSerf12 September 2022
Robert Armstrong ("Steve") is a reporter at a busy newspaper where he spends much of his time drinking or nursing an hangover. His behaviour is testing the patience not just of his bosses, but of his wife Margaret (a feisty Carole Lombard) who works for another newspaper and for some reason is still keen on him. When he finds himself on the wrong end of a murder investigation, she must help him track down the true culprit. The thing about this film is the dialogue - it is relentless and after a while becomes quite irritating and largely humourless. Sure, it deals with alcoholism (and it's side effects) in a way that the code would soon discourage, but as he comes across as somewhat odious and the whole pace, though frenetic as you might expect in a 1920s newspaper office, goes nowhere fast for the vast majority of the film. Even the last fifteen minutes - in which everything of note occurs - doesn't really lift it. I just found myself a bit bored by it all and it seemed longer than it's 75 minutes.
old time moidah shortie
ksf-28 February 2023
Picture and sound quality are just terrible. But this is almost 100 years old. Steve (armstrong) is a loud-mouthed, hard drinking newsman, who gets in fights with just about everyone. Especially his grouchy bosses, who spend all their time arguing. Steve's wife marge (lombard) is fed up with him staying out all night, and wants a divorce. So when steve gets accused of murder, he'll need to figure out who-dunnit just to save his own bacon. It's pretty good. Has all the fun elements of an old black and white moidah story... gangsters, news reporters, a speakeasy. Even the bumbling cops who can't solve the case without the reporter's assistance. Directed by greg la cava, who was nominated for two great films, stage door and my man godfrey. And who was the star of godfrey? Carole lombard! Sadly, la cava died young at 59. Lombard died even younger at 33. Story from the play by george brooks. Armstrong will star in king kong in a couple years. "big news" is a one hour shortie, from pathe; released during prohibition.
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