One Wild Night (1938) User Reviews

Make it 6.5!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 14 October 2016]

An agreeable support, this one is a sure audience pleaser for the first half of any program. True, it is a bit noisy, but comparatively well- made on quite a fair-sized budget. The star, June Lang, was both extremely beautiful and very capable. She would have enjoyed a long- running Hollywood career had she employed an agent. But June elected to manage herself and thus had no-one to stand up for her. She was first in the firing line when she made a number of mistakes, including forsaking her posting to England in 1938 without permission from the studio, because she was afraid that war would soon break out and that she would be trapped in London. Then, back in Hollywood in the early 'forties, she married a man who was a well-known gangster (but that knowledge was not known to June). As a result, the studio tore up her contract and her career was practically over!

The screenwriter had firecrackers in his pen.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 13 December 2019]

It's overtime on laughs and thrills in this comedy crime paper about an alleged kidnapping of four men and the ransom money which keeps turning up, as well as the reporters, federal agents and local police involved in the case. June Lang and Dick Baldwin May not be remembered today, but they are truly enjoyable as the novice reporter and federal agents are the odds in trying to get the lowdown on the case. Familiar faces Sidney Toler, William Demarest, Lyle Talbot and J. Edward Bromberg are memorable in supporting performances, and at one point, Toler ("Charlie Chan") seems to be making fun of Baldwin for being the number one son of the top federal agent.

This rather short film packs a lot of detail in only 72 minutes, and there are some moments that are truly genius. To have practically everybody in town show up to the bank with a marked bill is hysterical, and both Toler (busting out of his extra tight cop uniform and ending up in all sorts of clumsy situations) and Demarest (as the frustrated newspaper editor) are given very funny material that brings on real belly laughs. I had my own suspicions story behind the kidnapping (based on a newspaper headline showing the victim's wives), but after a while, I began to feel like I was watching a bugs Bunny Daffy Duck cartoon featuring live humans instead of animated figures.