Big Town After Dark

"Big Town", a shallowly disguised New York City, is of importance in a number of modes for popular United States culture, initially being a radio programme from 1937 until 1962, then on to television episodes, 1952/1956, and eventually as a comic book series, 1956/1958, with the protagonist in each manifestation being Steve Wilson, originally a reporter working for the Big Town Illustrated Press, later becoming its editor-in-chief, and played in this, the third of four films based upon the radio show, by Philip Reed who is featured in all of the four. In the production here, Wilson's almost girl friend and ace crime reporter Lorelei Kilbourne (Hillary Brooke), after her first novel has been accepted for publication, gives him two weeks notice of her resignation from her newspaper position but, to her chagrin, she is almost immediately replaced by the Illustrated Press owner's niece Susan (Anne Gillis), who by appearances also wedges herself into Steve's affections, although in reality he is using her to discover information of crooked Big Town activity involving an illegal gambling ring that preys upon college students. Susan is possibly not what she appears to be, and while Steve explores the girl's connection with local gambling kingpin Chuck LaRue (Richard Travis), owner of the Winners' Club, a night spot for gambling that is near to the campus where Susan attends, Lorelei also investigates her new rival's activities, with her efforts yielding more than she has expected, as all three of them may be in serious peril from the Forces of Evil. This is better than a routine "B" programmer, as it provides some incisive and hard bitten dialogue, a clever subtext based upon poker playing, and a generally edgy quality pervading the characterizations that lifts the work above the norm and, in spite of budget restrictions that rule out retakes, and a necessity for filling demands of its melodrama genre, there is plenty of "business" for a viewer to enjoy. Reed and Brooke make an elegant and worldly pair, veteran character players William Haade and Joe Sawyer perform as LaRue henchmen, and Vince Barnett has a substantial part in this Pine/Thomas production with producer William Thomas also directing and capably utilizing a crisply composed Whitman Chambers script in an always interesting, skillfully edited, briskly paced and well-cast film that additionally includes an effective original score by Darrell Calker, Gotham flavoured, of course, although the extensive location shooting is along Normandie Avenue on the east side of Hollywood.

This was the first movie I watched in a DVD collection of 50 "Crime Classics" from Mill Creek that I found in Movie Stop for $6.99. At about 14 cents per movie, I thought it was a pretty good deal. I was glad to see that this was a good transfer and the black and white detail was sharp.

This isn't quite film noir, but one can see a film noir influence. There are lots of night shots, characters who have psychological problems and a near femme fatale in Ann Gillis.

This is a B movie with "C" sets and a "B" script. It moves well and has some unexpected and unusual twists. There's nothing to knock your socks off, but the dialogue is sharp enough to get you smiling here and there.

Hillary Brook is her usual blonde ice self. She has an ephemeral presence, just floating through her scenes delivery her lines well, but without much thought or emotion.

The story is gallant and savvy newspaper reporters battling crooks. Watch for a funny inside reference to the classic newspaper play "The Front Page" at the beginning.

I understand from the reviews that there were three other Big Town movies. I am looking forward to seeing them, and looking forward to watching the 45 or so more movies in this collection that I haven't seen.

Big Town After Dark from 1947 stars Philip Reed and Hillary Brooke.

Reed is Steve, managing editor of Illustrated Press and receives the sad news that his top reporter, Lorelei Kilbourne (Brooke) has sold her novel and giving twovweeks' notice.

Steve hires the publisher's niece, Susan (Ann Gillis) as a replacement. Her uncle wanted him to convince her to stay in college, but Susan confesses that she flunked out and has actually been working part-time as a reporter. Lorelei is convinced Steve hired Susan to make her jealous.

Susan says she is on a crusade to close gambling clubs in the city, so Steve takes her to dinner at the Winners Club. During a fight, he's knocked unconscious. The next day, it appears Susan has been kidnapped. Her uncle winds up handing over $50,000 in a stock deal which he interprets as a kidnap demand.

Turns out, Susan wasn't kidnapped. Lorelei becomes suspicious and starts checking her story.

Okay programmer with an interesting plot. Reed at certain angles reminds me of Tyrone Power around the eyes. Low production values, low budget, strictly poverty row.

After an argument causes his best reporter "Lorelei Kilbourne" (Hillary Brooke) to tender her 2-week notice, a newspaper's managing editor "Steve Wilson" (Phillip Reed) immediately hires a fairly attractive young woman named "Susan Peabody" (Ann Gillis) to replace her. Naturally, the fact that Susan just happens to be the niece of the man who owns the newspaper causes some speculation but what concerns Lorelei even more is the suspicion that Susan isn't being totally honest about her past. However, when news breaks that Susan has been kidnapped by some local gamblers, things begin to take a deadly turn for everyone involved. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a passable crime-drama which was diminished somewhat by the paint-by-numbers direction and rather mediocre acting overall. Be that as it may, although this clearly wasn't a great movie by any means, I found it to be adequate for the time spent and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Hillary Brooke has published a novel and has another under contract. So she's quitting as crime reporter on the newspaper. Editor Phillip Reed doesn't want her to go, so when the publisher's niece, Ann Gillis, comes in asking for a job, he assigns her to Our Miss Brooke's beat, with a couple of weeks to train her. On Miss Gillis' suggestion, the paper begins beating the drums to close down the poker clubs around the state. Then Miss Gillis gets kidnapped by club owner Richard Travis. Or is she?

It's a Pine-Thomas production, and the Dollar Bills always turned out a decent B movie. They have exceeded themselves with this one, with a plot so twisty you can't see what's going on, and a particularly fine performance by Travis, who exudes an air of menace far from his usual nice-guy demeanor. Even Vince Barnett is enjoyable for once. There's also fun in a reference to Hildy Johnson, the center of THE FRONT PAGE. Does this mean Big Town is Chicago? The exteriors look like LA.