Las viudas de la prensa

Several less than warm reviews have been posted here regarding "Roar of the Press," but if a viewer decides to take a look at the film based on the knowledge that this is a B-movie about a newspaper reporter from 1941 and that it stars Jean Parker and Wallace Ford, satisfaction and enjoyment are very likely. The many actors with spoken parts are familiar to fans of old movies, if not by name at least by sight, and they do a good job of acting together and expressing themselves in a fairly natural way. Fans of B-westerns will see at least a couple of actors who have wandered off the range to appear here, including the venerable Charles King. The "Roar of the Press" story is a bit contrived perhaps, but no complaints here about the directing or editing. I say: pretty good stuff all the way!

Someone, perhaps veteran B director Phil Rosen, created okay, one-scene moments for former A stars, Dorthry Lee (Wheeler and Woolsey pics), Evelyn Knapp and Betty Compson. Someone also just saw His Girl Friday, so lots of pressroom reporter comraderie with one a star reporter with marriage issues. There's too much battle of sexes, verbal sparrage between reporter Ford and wifey Parker. Unfortunately, instead of capable, adult feminest Roz, we have the beautiful, but insipid Jean Parker, at home twiddling her thumbs and fuming. She complains he's missing dinner. He whines and lies.

Not fascinating.

A fast moving story about a honeymooning journalist Wallace Ford ("Wally") who happens across a scoop as an influential industrialist falls to his death from a rooftop. His editor needs (blackmails) him to follow up so we engage in a fine, if predictable, balancing act between his investigation and his new wife "Alice" (Jean Parker). When they are both kidnapped and discover a secret web of fifth columnists they must combine their talents to outwit them... It didn't have much of a budget, so the script and production are a bit creaky, but the supporting cast and sheer pace make it an OK newspaper-man film.

Our reporter hero has just married our heroine, country girl from Vermont, and has come back to New York for a brief honeymoon. When he sees a famous rich person fall from a window, will he get entangled in getting the story, following the siren call of the ROAR OF THE PRESS, or will he be able to give his cute newlywed some quality time?

This is a rather ordinary film from the infamous PRC, home of Edgar G. Ulmer and a whole lot of very cheap cinema. The leads are obscure -- they act well enough and give decent line readings. But the male lead is a decidedly peculiar choice for leading man -- he has "fat best friend character actor" written all over his looks and his cheerful, but hardly dominating performance. The female lead complains in the way that wives of husbands, journalists, and other busy professions always seem to do in the movies.

The end result is nothing very bad (the acting and pacing is OK), but nothing memorable either. Whether you respond with mild bemusement, mild boredom, or utter despair, depends on your appreciation for, or tolerance of, the host of "reporter after hot story" clichés trotted out here. Almost any Warner Bros film from the 30s that you can find will handle this sort of material better. But, if you have a hankering for a rootin, tootin hard-bitten stop the presses kind of movie right this second, you can watch this picture any time you want over at archive.org.

This B picture from Monogram casts Wallace Ford as a hotshot reporter who is returning from Vermont after covering a story there with a bride Jean Parker. He wants and has been promised a little honeymoon time from editor Jean Prouty. But as they arrive at their honeymoon penthouse suite, a body literally drops to the ground from the next building. All his reporter instincts kick in as Parker waits for her new husband to cover the story before getting down to honeymoon business.

All the cliches about newspaper reporters also kick in as the stereotypes created by The Front Page also kick in. Covering a story is one thing, but Ford flirts dangerously with evidence tampering. If he turned over the evidence he had to the cops he and the new missus would have avoided a lot of trouble. But there would be no picture.

It's Monogram and a typical Monogram cheap product.