Clear All Wires!

"Clear All Wires!" is another movie about unscrupulous journalism. In this case it wasn't serious like "Scandal Sheet" (1932) or "Five Star Final" (1931). It was silly, it was stupid, it was bad.

The movie starred Lee Tracy which was already a negative. He played a lying, deceptive journalist who fabricated just about every bit of news report he turned in. The only reason he hadn't been found out is that he was an overseas correspondent so there was no other journalist there to fact check him.

I can only take Lee Tracy in small doses. His voice is annoying and his type of comedy is not for me. He played Buckley Joyce Thomas, a reporter for a Chicago newspaper. He could out-talk anyone and it seemed to work; especially on women. He didn't go anywhere without his faithful sidekick Lefty (James Gleason) who'd do anything for him.

***Side bar

Servants and assistants were extremely faithful back then according to Hollywood. Whether their employer could pay them or not they'd stick around, fully vested in the well-being of their employer. They'd even lie, cheat, and steal for them. Why do I find that hard to believe?

***End side bar

Buckley's antics got even worse when he went to Russia to cover the fifteen year anniversary of the Russian revolution. His attempts to make news there were as dangerous as they were brainless. If only it were funny.

Meanwhile, Buckley had at least three women hanging onto his coattail. He had Dolly (Una Merkel), his main squeeze and his boss's sweetheart. There was Eugenie (Lya Lys), a Russian paramour he'd forgotten about. And there was Kate (Benita Hume), the smart, decent woman who he largely ignored, but who would patiently wait until Buckley got around to recognizing she was the best thing for him. Those women are the worst.

Free on Internet Archive.

Lee Tracy plays his usual role of the fast-talking, unprincipled hotshot, this time as a foreign correspondent who exaggerates, lies, and even sets up a mock assassination to scoop his rivals. Some of this is funny, some just silly and dumb, and some creepy. Russia under Stalin (whom Tracy calls Sta-LEEN) was no joke. Indeed, when Tracy visits the headquarters of the secret police, he sees two leaders of a student protest marched past him in chains, then out to a courtyard where men are waiting with rifles. Soon afterwards we hear shots in the background. Yet Tracy never comments on this, and the comedy carries on regardless, with many hasty and unlikely events.

Una Merkel gets to forsake her switchboard for a change, which she must have appreciated, and amusingly play a cutie pie who is supposed to be Tracy's girlfriend but is more interested in what she can get from a wealthy sugar daddy. Benita Hume, as the attractive, sensible woman who loves Tracy but is ignored or exploited by him, is given a part so perfunctory as to be practically invisible.

Jimmy Demarest is, as ever, welcome as the gravel-voiced, hapless fall guy. At one point he leaves on a mission to make inquiries at a government department; he returns after hardly enough time to have left the building. Such devices point to the film's origin as a ramshackle, wacky stage play, in which a casual approach to believability and consistency of tone could be laughed off as part of the fun. Movies, however, are more realistic, and the flaws make for almost as much annoyance as comedy.

Snappy Lee Tracy's role in his first MGM movie "Clear All Wires" was almost prophetic in view of how he left the studio. At the end of 1933 MGM sent him to Mexico for "Viva Villa" where his behaviour on a balcony in front of a passing parade had him hustled out of the country and saw his MGM contract cancelled. But at the start of 1933 everything was rosy and in "Clear All Wires" he played a high powered newspaper correspondent who almost sparks an international incident when he has to create news out of a vacuum. The studio was extremely happy with him and his ability (like Glenda Farrell) to rattle off the rate of 40 words in ten seconds (Glenda was even faster - in "Torchy Gets Her Man" she gave a 400 word speech in 40 seconds!!) Anyway Tracy confided that he always slowed down his speech just before a rapid fire delivery to give the impression he was faster than he was!!

Buckley Joyce Thomas never lets a no news day stand in the way of a good story. Whether it's finding human interest in the taciturn answers of a peasant, a worker or a new woman of Russia or fast talking his way into the middle of a meeting between Stalin and Lenin, Buckley is always at the forefront, even if he has to side swipe his rival reporters to get the scoop. With his faithful sidekick "Lefty" (Russell Gleason in a pretty thankless role) and his girl, Kate (Benita Hume was lovely but could they have found another actress who had less chemistry with Lee - I doubt it!!!) he is always able to get out of any scrape.

To be honest this is definitely not my favourite Tracy movie - maybe it was just the dour setting and as another reviewer said poking fun at Russia may have been funnier in the early 30s than it is now. The person who comes off best is Una Merkel - but doesn't she always. Her leading lady parts gone and now doing what she did best - golden supporting parts where she mostly stole the show. She played Buckley's former flame who has found a new "daddie" - one who appreciates her voice and wants to see her renowned throughout the Continent. But Dolly is not at all shy about having Buckley in her life again. As usual Una takes whatever small morsel of a part she is given and runs with it, making even a line like "and if I wasn't wearing my shoes, they'd have stolen them too" sound like the funniest line in the movie!! - Buckley had promised her a luxurious "Orient Express" type train compartment but, believing his lies, she found herself on a freight train to Siberia!!!

Flash! Urgent! CLEAR ALL WIRES! Buckley Joyce Thomas (Lee Tracy), ace reporter of the Chicago Globe, after returning from captivity in the Moroccan desert, now lands up to his ears in danger in Soviet Moscow. Hoping to interview New Russian citizens - and perhaps be seen hobnobbing with Stalin - he finds himself in intense trouble with dames (Benita Hume & Una Merkel) and suspected by the Secret Police of attempted murder! Will this be Buckley Joyce Thomas' last dispatch?

This is an enjoyable, fast-moving, if somewhat corny film, with dialogue & situations that let you know it was definitely produced pre-Production Code. It is interesting to see Hollywood's take on Red Russia only 15 years after the Revolution.

Lee Tracy, having recently become a star at Warner Brothers, began his short stint at MGM with this film. He would appear in 4 MGM films in 1933, and was well on his way to becoming the Studio's answer to Cagney, when he suffered a spectacular fall from grace the following year & was immediately fired from MGM. It is a shame he is almost forgotten today, as he was an exciting actor to watch: pushing the limit, rough edged, perfectly cast as nosy reporters, shyster lawyers or shady talent agents.

The other members of the cast all do a fine job. Special mention should be made of James Gleason as Tracy's faithful factotum, and Ari Kutai as a Russian gofer. Movie mavens will spot Mischa Auer as a Moroccan prince & Akim Tamiroff as a sleazy Moscow hotel manager, both uncredited.

Those of us who only know Lee Tracy from his late career Art Hochsteader, the former president in Gore Vidal's play and movie THE BEST MAN (Tracy repeated his Tony winning role in the film) are in for a treat in this FRONT PAGE-style farce on the newspaper trade from early in that career.

After a somewhat disappointing 93 performance Broadway run with Thomas Mitchell as the lead newsman, Sam and Bella Spewak (later to create KISS ME KATE with Cole Porter) brought their frantically paced farce West with two members of the Broadway Cast (John Melvin Bleifer as Sozanoff and Ari Kutai as Kastya - relatively minor roles). The resulting film would be a perfect double feature with Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur's classic FRONT PAGE, filmed just two years earlier.

As far as we know, the Broadway run of CLEAR ALL WIRES did not provide any moments as romantic as THE FRONT PAGE's Opening Night - when MacArthur asked Helen Hayes to marry him - but barely five years after the movie came out, the Spewaks and Cole Porter used CLEAR ALL WIRES (with the addition of a comic reluctant diplomat character) as the basis for their musical hit LEAVE IT TO ME, which introduced Mary Martin to Broadway - and Broadway has had a love affair with HER ever since.

Una Merkel plays the Mary Martin part (Dolly) in the movie and even bears a striking resemblance - but she doesn't get to sing "My Heart Belongs To Daddy!"

CLEAR ALL WIRES' politics (Stalin and even an expendable Romanoff life are less important to Tracy's character than a headline) are a bit muddy, but the farce scarcely gives you time to think about them. It's 1933 and all Director George W. Hill and the Spwewaks care about is getting the next laugh - which they do with satisfying regularity - either the next laugh or the next turn that leaves you stunned with the sheer audacity. A fun 78 minutes.