Big News

An early talkie, and boy, does it show, with the static camerawork and uncertain sound recording. But it's a lively newspaper comedy-drama, energetically directed by Gregory La Cava and conveying lots of big--city-news atmosphere. Robert Armstrong, not the suavest or handsomest leading man, is a "Front Page"-style newspaperman pursuing an opioid story and squabbling with not just his editors but his wife, Carol (not yet Carole) Lombard, who's only 20 or 21 here and not the incandescent presence she later became. Sam Hardy's a menacing thug, Gabby Hayes another newsman, and, most intriguingly, Cupid Ainsworth is the jacket-and-tie-wearing lady who dispenses advice to the lovelorn, along with wisecracks. There's much drunken behavior, of the type once considered hilarious, and it's fast-paced and lively. I kept wanting Armstrong to turn into Lee Tracy, and I wish it were more audible, but at 65 minutes, it doesn't wear out its welcome.

Robert Armstrong does a fine job heading up this familiar portrait of an old-time newspaper office, with all the cliches, stereotypes and corny wise cracks preserved intact, for a Talkie now nearly a century old. Carole Lombard has a relatively uninteresting role as his fellow reporter wife (threatening him with divorce due to his drunkenness), and a talented but obscure supporting cast fill out the canvas for a fun hour.

Based on a George Brooks stage play, and not opened out even a little bit for the big screen, the show has colorful if hokey characters, ranging from the old skinflint of an editor, the meddling advertising chief, an overweight advice columnist lady giving Armstrong a hard time, a poetic colleague who is always inebriated and a smoothie gangster who Robert is out to expose to get the story of a lifetime.

The set-up footage of lighthearted jokes and jibes lets director Leo McCarey pile up the laughs for what seems like a long time, before the show gets serious with murder, framing of Armstrong and some snappy (if improbable) plot twists to wrap up the entire story in a neat little package. For a modern audience, the early talkie seems stilted, with its master-shot photography (no closeups allowed) and static quality, but its earthiness is still a treat.

I would say that 1931 was the year movies got remarkably better. By then the sound and picture quality was better and it seems the acting and the scripts made the leap forward too. 1929 was so early in the talkie stages that I don't think studios, directors, actors, or even writers were prepared for it. Because of that there were a lot of movies between 1929 and 1930 with bad plots and terrible acting.

Take "Big News" for instance. This movie was OK, but I think it would've been loads better if done a few years later.

The notable actors were Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard. They played a married couple and both were reporters but at different newspapers. Robert Armstrong played Steve Banks, a reporter working at his sixteenth paper. He'd been fired from the other fifteen rags because of his drinking problem. When he was sober he was a decent newspaperman.

He was on the trail of a dope pusher named Joe Reno (Sam Hardy), except he couldn't stay sober long enough to gather anything on Reno. His only chance to 1.) save his marriage, 2.) break a big story, and 3.) save his job, was to sober up and do what he knew how to do.

As for a plot, "Big News" wasn't bad. The execution, however, left a lot to be desired, but I think that was the most that could be expected back then.

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BIG NEWS (Pathe, 1929), directed by Gregory LaCava, is vintage/early talkie newspaper melodrama taken from the stage play reportedly titled "For Two Cents" by George S. Brooks. Probably inspired by the more famous Ben Hecht / Charles MacArthur 1928 play of "The Front Page" that became the basis of the 1931 screen adaptation starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien, BIG NEWS (its new yet more appropriate title) stars Robert Armstrong in a stage to screen adaptation set mostly inside an editorial room/office with reporter/editor/publisher types giving that actual newsroom feel with stories behind it.

Plot development introduces the workers of The Express newspaper as they start off their rainy morning in the editorial room: Hansel (Louis Payne), the publisher; J. W. Addison (Charles Sellon), the editor-in-chief who's hard of hearing; Vera (Cupid Ainsworth), a heavy-set manly-dressed columnist of advice to the lovelorn column; O'Neill (Wade Boteler) the city editor, and Steve Banks (Robert Armstrong), a reporter found sobering up on the sofa inside Addison's office. With his weakness for liquor, Steve's strength is getting the scoop, although his wife, Margaret (Carol Lombard), working for the Morning Herald, has out scooped him with her narcotics ring story he is assigned to do. Married two years, Margaret comes to the office to tell Steve she wants a divorce. Though she feels he's a great reporter, she finds him irresponsible and refuses to wait to see him reach the drunken path of fellow reporter Deke Thomas (James Donlan). Although there are others who want Steve Banks fired, it's Joe Reno (Sam Hardy), its leading advertiser and owner of a neighboring speakeasy, The Reno Cafe, who arranges that for suspecting Steve's hunches are getting too close to the truth about him. Told by Addison he's nothing but a bum newspaperman and insult to his profession, Steve angrily walks out of the office to prove his theories about him are false. Acquiring a written statement from a Rose Perotti that could put Reno and his gang to prison, Banks returns to find Addison's office with police, co-workers and all the evidence pointed towards Steve for his murder for which he is innocent.

Other members of the cast include Warner Richmond (District Attorney Phelps), Gertrude Sutton (Helen), Clarence Wilson (The Coroner) and Tom Kennedy (Thomas Ryan), a police officer whose name is purposely misspelled in articles written by Steve Banks. Look quickly for future film stars as George, later "Gabby" Hayes (sans beard) of movie westerns fame Hoffman, a reporter; and the youthful Lew Ayres briefed in two scenes as a copy boy.

Unlike most early talkies from 1929, the 66-minute edition of BIG NEWS is faster-paced than most, thanks to the fine direction by Gregory LaCava, best known for his comedy classic MY MAN GODFREY (Universal, 1936) that co-starred Carole Lombard (billed Carol in BIG NEWS) whose madcap performance earned her her only Academy Award nomination as Best Actress.

While Armstrong and Lombard were paired in total of four movies during the 1928-29 season, to date, BIG NEWS and THE RACKETEER (1929) are the only ones available for viewing either on limited video cassette or DVD format releases. (*** Bylines)

Robert Armstrong ("Steve") is a reporter at a busy newspaper where he spends much of his time drinking or nursing an hangover. His behaviour is testing the patience not just of his bosses, but of his wife Margaret (a feisty Carole Lombard) who works for another newspaper and for some reason is still keen on him. When he finds himself on the wrong end of a murder investigation, she must help him track down the true culprit. The thing about this film is the dialogue - it is relentless and after a while becomes quite irritating and largely humourless. Sure, it deals with alcoholism (and it's side effects) in a way that the code would soon discourage, but as he comes across as somewhat odious and the whole pace, though frenetic as you might expect in a 1920s newspaper office, goes nowhere fast for the vast majority of the film. Even the last fifteen minutes - in which everything of note occurs - doesn't really lift it. I just found myself a bit bored by it all and it seemed longer than it's 75 minutes.