Off the Record

Pat O'Brien and Joan Blondell play a pair of reporters in Off The Record who take in young Bobby Jordan after his guardian and brother Alan Baxter is picked up o a gambling rap. In fact Baxter is taking a fall for an Arnold Rothstein type of character Morgan Conway. It leaves Jordan in a state orphan asylum for which he blames the reporters.

Eventually as they do in all these city tough kid films made back in the day Jordan does soften especially after they find something that interests him.

Some plot elements from Boystown are found here. Bobby Jordan who usually is in the pack in support of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall in those East Side Kid/Bowery Boys films for maybe the only time in his career Jordan is the main protagonist in a movie. He does well, just like Mickey Rooney in Boys Town.

O'Brien and Blondell play their typical characters as well. Their fans should be pleased.

Director James Flood brings nothing to this Warner B. Although the two leads are, as you might expect, dynamite, the attempt to merge their fast-talking screwball relationship with one of Warner Brother's socially conscious dramas does not work. Perhaps a little more screen time might have resulted in a movie that lets both sides of the story work, but at sixty-two minutes, there's nothing for anyone to do but talk fast enough to get the story out; plus the triviality of the 'social evil' with the seriousness imputed to it is a serious misstep.

It is a pity because the cast, as usual with Warner's B production, is top notch. and the writing credits are nothing to be sneered at. A rare misfire.

Joan Blondell stars as Jane Morgan in this short, 62 minute Warner Brothers story of old time newspaper reporters. Mickey Fallon ( Bobby Jordan ) loses his parents and is now under the dubious care of his older brother Joe ( Alan Baxter ), who is in the rackets. Jane sees Mickey getting involved in this, and tries to convince "Breezy" ( Pat OBrien ) to let her write a story on it... Of course, no-one takes her seriously, so she mentions it in her column, and now everyone in town wants to get involved. Breezy and Jane must keep an eye on Mickey to keep him from getting back in the rackets. There isn't really time to develop any real, in-depth plot, so things move right along. Jordan was one of the original kids in the "Dead End" films. Blondell and OBrien had both been in Hollywood for ten years, so they were experienced actors by this time. (My favorite J Blondell film would have to be Desk Set... you gotta see it if you haven't already...) Directed by James Flood, who had spent his first ten years working on silent films. Good way to kill an hour, but don't expect a lot.

Pat O'Brien and Joan Blondell play editor and reporter again, as they did in "Back in Circulation." This time, the emphasis is different.

Blondell plays Jane Morgan, a columnist, who comes across a hot story -- a local mobster has been using young boys as spotters in his billiard establishment.

She tries to pitch the story to her editor Thomas Elliott (O'Brien) and the publisher of the newspaper, but they pay no attention to her. When the story lands in her column, it causes a huge sensation. Her investigative reporting lands on the front page.

As a result of this, the mobster makes a deal with Joe Fallon (Alan Baxter), one of his minions, to take the rap for him and go to prison. Fallon agrees, meaning that his little brother (Bobby Jordan) will have to go to reform school.

Feeling guilty, Jane, who has been pestered by Tom to marry him, wants to adopt the boy. He's resistant but finally relents, and things go very well until the kid drifts toward being influenced by Joe.

This is a short B movie. O'Brien and Blondell made a great team. She's adorable as usual here. Warners often made their character actors into leading men, and O'Brien was no exception. He did this kind of role very well.

Not much else going on since it's so short, but it's pleasant enough.

Pat O'Brien, as a New York City newspaperman who is cajoled into marriage (yet doesn't mind) and basically taken for a chump (but shrugs it off), is such a wonderful screen actor that even a simplistic scenario like this one slides right off his back. An exposé on gambling, written by fast-talking newspaper reporter Joan Blondell, sends a tough teenage punk to reform school; she feels guilty and asks a co-worker to marry her in order to adopt the kid and give him a second chance at life. Despite the large cast of screenwriters and story-originators who are credited with work on this project, it's a pleasant-enough picture, nimbly mixing hard-shelled sentiment with gangster prose within an amusingly dry newspaper milieu. O'Brien and Blondell are an easy match and, though the plot isn't convincing for a second, the picture succeeds as a friendly urban fairy tale. "Off the Record" isn't off-the-cuff, but it's definitely on-the-square. *** from ****