An interesting Paramount film from 1937 teaming a petulant Frances Farmer and low-key Fred MacMurray as quarreling lovers working for competing newspapers. Charlie Ruggles, as Farmer's father, adds equal doses of slapstick humor and poignancy. The film veers fairly wildly in tone, including jabs at yellow journalism, racketeering and the self-righteous attitudes of some press-people, while working in bits about that oft-quoted conundrum--how do you know for sure that a refrigerator's light goes out when you close the door? Farmer's character is pretty unlikeable, putting down her father, working for a gangster to spite her boyfriend, etc., but she pulls off the role with the panache typical of her early work. In the weird-but-real synchronicity department, a bit actor by the name of William (Billy) Arnold plays a reporter in the film. Farmer fans will know that another "real" reporter named William Arnold made headlines decades later with his sensationalized (and some claim fictionalized) account of Farmer's life.
