Madge Evans tracks down a newspaper reporter and asks for help: she overheard a racketeer pressuring her grocer father to sell more numbers - or else. Hard-nosed reporter Stuart Erwin is on the case but newspaper lawyer Franchot Tone thinks it's a lot of fuss over nickel and dime gambling.
Erwin investigates while Evans assists and worries about her father. Tone gradually comes around and joins the fight. It's a predictable plot but this fast-paced crime drama features some solid performances.
J. Farrell MacDonald is sympathetic as Evans's father, the kindly grocer. Joseph Calleia is appropriately nasty as the clever racketeer who threatens MacDonald and leers at Evans. The cast of familiar B movie veterans also includes Robert Barrat as the head mobster, Wade Boteler as a bodyguard, and Raymond Hatton as a newspaper editor.
Erwin has the juiciest role as the hard-working wise guy reporter. In one great shot, he's about to board a flight out of town, coat on, cigarette in mouth. He says goodbye to his wife, takes out his cigarette, kisses her--and then exhales smoke.
Evans and Tone are a little less colorful but both come across as attractive and convincing. Overall it's an enjoyable and fast-moving adventure that is fun as long as you don't think about it too much. (For example: Evans calls up Erwin to report that a man has been murdered on her doorstep. His response: "I'll be right there. Hold everything. And don't call the cops!")