Headline Crasher

If this film had been made over at MGM this might have been a Hardy family feature. Frankie Darro is doing his best Mickey Rooney imitation and all we would have to do is make Richard Tucker a judge like Judge Hardy who was running for United States Senator and we would have Lewis Stone.

The resemblance between Headline Crashers and a feature with the Hardy Family from Carvel is substituting Muriel Evans for the judge's secretary and Cecilia Parker could fit in nicely. And of course the film would benefit from the filet mignon of the MGM production values versus the hog's liver values of poverty row Conn films.

Frankie Darro is being mercilessly conned by people who are trying to get dirt on him to ruin his father's chances for re-election. At the same time bank robber John Merton is out of jail and he wants to settle with Tucker for putting him there as a prosecutor. The two plot elements collide at Tucker's vacation lodge.

There's also a nice part for Eleanor Stewart, Merton's moll who is the one who gets Darro's hormones raging which starts everything in the first place. She'd fit perfectly in a Hardy film tempting young Andy.

The film had possibilities, at a big studio this would have been something more.

Well, we've got a senator up for re-election, a newspaper out to bring him down for headlines' sake, a gangster with a grudge out on parole...nothing too earth shattering. At the center of the story: the senator's son, the senator's secretary, and a newspaper reporter out for a good story. All pretty standard ingredients; all pretty ably carried out here.

The senator's son is played with some enthusiasm by the dashing Frankie Darro, who has some trouble catching a break in this story but persists nevertheless. Muriel Evans, as the senator's very able secretary, also does well. Kane Richmond, as a reporter whose duty to drum up news events eventually bumps up against his sense of justice, takes longer to come around to the side of justice...but it's a 56-minute movie, which doesn't leave a whole lot of time for the suspense to build.

The trio of stars actually interact well and do succeed in making us root for them down the stretch. A few laughs, a little witty banter, a few standard gangster snarls--it's all a quite enjoyable if slight concoction.

Jimmy Tallant (Frankie Darro) is a headstrong and spoiled young man...whose father happens to be a senator! After yet another run-in with the law due to his very reckless driving, his license is revoked...and the press, wanting to harm the Senator's re-election prospects, wants to take advantage of this. At first, you don't feel the least bit sorry for Jimmy, as he is a bit of a jerk. But after a while, you feel bad for the family and even Jimmy because the 'journalists' begin manufacturing news with Jimmy. Again and again, he is minding his own business when set-ups occur...and hidden photographers are there to take photos and make up stories about him! Jimmy is tired of this and doesn't want to hurt his father, so he decides to disappear for a while. The timing stinks, as the papers soon begin spreading the rumor that Jimmy is part of a gang of crooks...and if they can't find Jimmy, it makes it appear as if the boy MIGHT be involved. What's next? See the film.

In some ways, this plays a bit more like a movie serial than I expected. The pace, music and fight scenes all are reminiscent of the style of film...and having Kane Richmond (such as "The Lost City" and "Spy Smasher") in the movie heightens this sense. Overall, not an especially deep film and a tough sell since you initially HATE Jimmy...but not bad as time-passers go.