La joyeuse aventure

"Ladies Crave Excitement" will never be mistaken for great art, but tiny little Mascot Pictures actually created a decent little B-movie with this picture. While it stars relatively unknowns, it more than makes up for it with action and a breezy script. Perhaps the average viewer won't think much of it, but fans of the Bs should be more than entertained by it.

The story is about the adventures of Don Phelan (Norman Foster). He has a job filming stuff for a small newsreel company, Union Newsreel, and the guy is a nut who seems more than willing to do just about anything to get a story. The problem is that his boss is a grouchy sort (what else is there in this sort of film?) and there are always baddies trying to stop him--such as mobsters who try to fix a horse race and escaped prisoners! In fact, the film has practically no let up...with lots of crazy adventures crammed into about an hour...an entertaining hour.

Right from the unique and flashy opening credits sequence, this nifty little action picture packs energy and breezy style into every minute.

Norman Foster is Don, top newsreel photographer and news hound at Union Newsreel, Inc. It's a pretty exciting job! The boss doesn't let on that he knows Don is his best reporter, preferring to play the gruff and grumbling chief…but he assigns his own son to learn the business from Don.

Meanwhile, Evalyn Knapp is Wilma, daughter of the rival newsreel company's head man. She is generally regarded as a spoiled rich girl who has "more money than brains"—but she has nerve and talent enough to show off her flying skills as an unscheduled (and uninvited) participant in an air show. In any case, Wilma is bored and urges her rich father to give her a job. Laughing, he tells her it's preposterous: "Do you imagine for one moment that any young woman of your type would be anything but an infernal nuisance at any business?" Her steady reply: "I certainly do."

Not surprisingly, Don and Wilma eventually team up to take on Don's big idea: dramatizing news events—that is, re-enacting them using a combination of real news makers and actors—and calling it The March of Events. Of course, the whole time that Wilma is developing into Don's top collaborator on the job, he thinks her name is McCloskey and has no idea who she really is….

Along the way, the plot involves gamblers, company spies, some tricky camera work from Don, and some wild chase sequences along gravel roads in open roadsters. Eric Linden puts in a nice performance as Bob, the boss's lazy son who finally takes a shot at redeeming himself. The great George Hayes is fun as a horse trainer—no scruffy whiskers yet, but you can see an early Gabby in his mannerisms.

No wasted motion or words in this quickie; there's really not a boring moment. Great fun, right to the corny final shot.

Norman Foster is a news reel photographer with a healthy disrespect for Evalyn Knapp, daughter of the owner of a competing news reel. When they meet, she passes herself off with another name, and soon romance is a-blooming in this mild screwball comedy.

It's handsomely eked out with the sort of sequences that the newsreels covered in the era, and the out-of-favor but still strong actors Poverty Row producer Mascot could afford. Director Nick Grinde does a decent job, particularly in the visuals -- his career as a director extended back into the Teens, so the visuals are well handled, producing a good, if not startling movie. One of the plot points shows a fictionalized version of THE MARCH OF TIME film series, herein called "The March of Events". It's B film fare all the way through, but engaging for all that.

Directed by Nick Grinde, a prolific B director from the thirties and forties who made all kind of films: dramas, thrillers, crime, comedies but never horror or science fiction. So this one is rare, despite the you tube disposal, a bit boring but fun, enjoyable but not that interesting for someone like me. A Nick Grinde's movie can't be despised by a gem searcher, because the pre code thirties era is always worth searching, for the reason that you can find some gems from time to time. This one, I don't know, at least for my taste. If you like fast paced films, not over seventy minutes, go for it.