User reviews

Risky Business (1939) is a reasonably well-crafted crime fiction from Universal, directed by Arthur Lubin. It stars George Murphy and Dorothea Kent. Murphy, the only person in the cast who would qualify as a major star at the time (and even he wasn't all that major), is convincing as a radio journalist who, jaded by years of writing harsh film reviews, decides to make the rescue of a kidnapped heiress the cause of his career. He is aided by his secretary "Dexter" (Dorothea Kent) who loves him, though he himself feels only friendly camaraderie toward her. The main villains in the piece are Leon Ames and Eduardo Ciannelli. Ciannelli, in his few scenes, manages to steal the show. This would not be hard in a film populated exclusively by character actors (other than Murphy), but Ciannelli is malignantly villainous. After Murphy and perhaps Kent, he is the most impressive actor in the film.

Despite the lack of A-list stars, the film moves along quite nicely for its 67 minutes, carried by a decent plot, adequate dialogue, reasonably good performances by the supporting cast, and a strong performance by George Murphy. I see that it currently has a rating of 7.4 on IMDb; this, I think, is slightly higher than warranted for this "B" crime drama, but it definitely rates a 7, maybe even a 7.2.

I don't think the film has ever been available on VHS or DVD. Perhaps it occasionally shows up on late-night television. At least one ebay merchant has DVD-Rs of the film. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys crime dramas, not as a "must-see" (from the same year, a "must see" is The Roaring Twenties), but definitely as "worth seeing."

Well, that was pretty boring.

George Murphy (Dan) is a radio announcer who gets obsessed with solving the case of a kidnapped woman and spends the film liaising with the underworld to secure her release.

The film has zero energy in terms of action and Murphy spends the whole film delivering monotone dialogue which saps the energy levels even further. We also spend a ludicrous amount of time at the beginning of the film with people endlessly saying hello to Murphy. There are way too many characters thrown at us. Receptionist Dorothea (Kent Dexter) provides the love interest for Murphy but he plays the film detached from her and her advances and is quite horrible to her.

Gangster Eduardo Ciannelli (Decarno) gets the best line of dialogue when he says "If it weren't for murder and famine, we'd have a far worse population problem". Yeah, he's right.

I asked my wife what mark she would rate this film and her response was "yawn". I agree with her.