The Speed Reporter

Well, at least it's a "Reliable" picture! It's also a pretty rough and ready crime caper that sees enthusiastic journalist "Dick" (Richard Talmadge) investigate the probity of the chairman of the newly formed "City Reform League" after a night of crooked chaos leaves quite a few people in custody and quite a few prominent citizens under suspicion. "Renfrew" (Frank Hall Crane) is the man, ostensibly an upstanding gentleman, whom we soon realise is very much in the pocket of "Franklin" (Richard Cramer). Can "Dick" and his charming fiancé "May" (Luana Walters) save the day? To be fair, it's quite a pacy affair with lots of (overly) choreographed chases and fist-fights before a really messy and frank quite annoying denouement. Indeed, I found the leading man to be a bit of a pain right from the get-go! It's very dialogue heavy and such attempts at humour as there are probably fell flat in 1936 let alone nowadays. It's a cinema curio at best, sorry.

I grew up watching this movie over and over again since my grandfather owned his own 16mm print. Richard Talmadge, a former circus performer moved into the movies and was noted for his ability to climb buildings, while managing to maintain his balance as he jumped up or down to various balconies. His big claim to fame is that he could leap from the ledge of a building at a two story level, doing a flip landing on his back onto a plat bed truck.

The IMDb lists the running time for Speed Reporter at 55 minutes. When I bought a DVD from TCM, I noticed the running time of 53 minutes. A two minute scene of a roof-top fighting sequence was missing. It occurs at the 26.08 minute mark where Chuck Ballard (Richard Crammer) says, "Then he must be on the roof". It's too bad that scene is missing since it contains some interesting stunts. I have yet to be able to find complete movie anywhere.

Outside of now middle aged Talmadge's stunts, which include leaping a couple of storeys into a truck, this formula reporter cracks crime ring piece is the pits. Support cast, decors, filming and script are all lackluster. The use of vintage motor vehicles and shooting square on make the piece seem five years earlier than it is.

Things are not helped by the DVD transfer viewed which appeared to be heavily cropped round the edges - the changeover cues almost out of frame.

It's curious to see what Talmadge, Henry Hathaway's second unit man got up to but not encouraging.