Arma Poderosa

Wendy Barrie wins a $750,000 judgment for slander against Walter Pidgeon's newspaper. He settles by handing the paper over to her. He also conspires with editor Kent Taylor to sabotage the paper so he can get it back. Taylor, however, is so entranced with her ability to provide him with good stories, that he falls for her, as does Pidgeon.

Although the copy I looked at was in poor shape, first-time director S. Sylvan Simon directs this wide-eyed crazy comedy at speed gets a wonderful comedy out of it. Although it sags briefly in the middle as the movie prepares the big ending, in which Pidgeon tries to frame the paper for a phony story about Miss Barrie's father, George Barbier, being kidnapped, it ends with such a terrific rush of nonsense that I forgave all. Simon used this picture as a springboard to MGM, where he directed Red Skelton's vehicles, while still working at Universal. He was the producer of the recently released movie version of BORN YESTERDAY when he died in 1951 at age 41.