Clear All Wires!

Lee Tracy was a very unusual actor in that he played the same sort of character in tons of his 1930s films....a snappy talking newspaper reporter. So, the plot here isn't too unusual, although the film IS set in the Soviet Union.

In "Clear All Wires!", Buckley (Tracy) is an unethical reporter who is declared a hero in Paris, when he really didn't do anything! Well, this same attitude about stories is Buckley's m.o....make up the news instead of actually reporting it. But when his boss fires him because he thinks Buckley was cutting in on his girl, Buckley decides to create an insane story about the last of the Romanovs being shot....and, as you'd expect, it's all crap...though he actually DOES end up getting shot himself. What's next? See the film.

If you've never seen any of Tracy's newspaper reporter stories, then this one is worth seeing...though it's far from his best. If you've seen quite a bit of these films, then you might just want to skip the movie because it's not among his best reporter films...mostly due to the silly script.

Lee Tracy plays a typical '30s reporter in "Clear All Wires" from 1933.

What's a typical '30s reporter? Fast-talking, glib, manipulative, will do anything to get a story -- and who better to play him in his MGM debut than Lee Tracy?

In "Clear All Wires," Tracy's character, Buckley Joyce Thomas, isn't averse to making the news either, or embellishing it. According to him, he's dying of thirst in the desert at one point when in fact, he's being treated like a king.

When he returns to Chicago, he runs into his publisher's girlfriend, Dolly (Una Merkel) - she calls her benefactor "Daddy" -- and, with his boss out of the room, Buckley makes plans to meet her that evening. His publisher isn't an idiot. Buckley is then dispensed to Moscow immediately.

There, he takes over another reporter's suite (and later his identity) and, with his assistant (James Gleason) tries to get some major interviews.

Then Dolly shows up, and the publisher fires him for conduct unbecoming. Desperate, he tries to marry a fellow reporter, Kate (Benita Hume) who is insulted because she really does love him. Now he really has to do something to keep his job.

It's a very fast film probably trying to be madcap, but it's a little too talky for that, having been a play starring Thomas Mitchell. But Lee Tracy is excellent. Always theatrical in his approach, this was his kind of role.

This material has a place in Broadway history. It was made into a musical, "Leave it to Me," which was Mary Martin's debut in the Una Merkel role. And what did she sing? "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."

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.

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.

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.