Danger Street

An aggressive magazine editor wants to bump up circulation with a more revealing type format. The publisher, however, nixes the idea so the magazine staff pools their money to buy him out. Trouble is they play fast and loose with the full amount, which leads the editor and his chief reporter into a spiral eventuating in a mysterious murder. Now they're in real trouble.

The first part had me wondering if this could be a lowly Pine-Thomas produced and Lew Landers directed production. There's a zest and motivation to the early scenes that's unusual for a low-budgeter. Then too, Withers shines as a less- than-glamorous leading lady, while leading man Lowery responds in like fashion. But once events move to the murder mansion, things become more ordinary. Maybe you can follow the crime plot, since I had trouble tracking who was photographing whom and why. Add the financing of the magazine buy-out, and the script is not exactly streamlined, to say the least. But the film is really salvaged by Withers' ace performance that's both nervy and charming. Good also to see cantankerous old Will Wright picking up a payday as police chief, though rudely uncredited in the cast list.

Anyway, a better script would have had a shot at making this programmer a minor sleeper. Unfortunately, the result may have fallen short, but remains a credit to the skills of both lead actors.