A crusading newspaper reporter battles big-city gambling interests.A crusading newspaper reporter battles big-city gambling interests.A crusading newspaper reporter battles big-city gambling interests.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
Phillip Reed
- Steve Wilson
- (as Philip Reed)
Ann Gillis
- Susan Peabody LaRue
- (as Anne Gillis)
Robert Kent
- Jake Sebastian
- (as Douglas Blackley)
Joseph Allen
- Wally Blake--Reporter
- (as Joe Allen Jr.)
Fred Aldrich
- Police Car Driver
- (uncredited)
Don Barclay
- Gambler
- (uncredited)
Benny Bartlett
- McGonigle
- (uncredited)
Gregg Barton
- Detective
- (uncredited)
Gladys Blake
- Gambler
- (uncredited)
Dorothy Christy
- Card Shark
- (uncredited)
Sumner Getchell
- Harvey Cushman--Reporter
- (uncredited)
John Holland
- District Attorney Harding
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
Phillip Reed, newspaper editor, gets himself sweet-talked into hiring the owner's niece, Ann Gillis, who supposedly is attending college and looking for a reporters job. She's not and instead dupes him into looking into the goings-on at a local gambling house, The Winners Club. Reed calls out one of the parlor's operatives for dealing from the bottom of the deck and is quickly overtaken by the club's thugs and drug into meet the owner of this seedy establishment, Richard Travers. After a beating by Travers' gang, Reed ends up hospitalized and wondering what happened to Gillis. Believing that Gillis has been kidnapped, the paper owner, Charles Arnt, is shaken down by Travers for $50,000. Reed then goes on a crusade to expose the gang and recover the $50,000. Hillary Brooke et al is called in to assist with the effort. The plot becomes obvious although the ending had a nice twist. It's pretty slow going overall with low production values. Just a time waster at best.
After an argument causes his best reporter "Lorelei Kilbourne" (Hillary Brooke) to tender her 2-week notice, a newspaper's managing editor "Steve Wilson" (Phillip Reed) immediately hires a fairly attractive young woman named "Susan Peabody" (Ann Gillis) to replace her. Naturally, the fact that Susan just happens to be the niece of the man who owns the newspaper causes some speculation but what concerns Lorelei even more is the suspicion that Susan isn't being totally honest about her past. However, when news breaks that Susan has been kidnapped by some local gamblers, things begin to take a deadly turn for everyone involved. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a passable crime-drama which was diminished somewhat by the paint-by-numbers direction and rather mediocre acting overall. Be that as it may, although this clearly wasn't a great movie by any means, I found it to be adequate for the time spent and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.
Pretty good little programmer. No one expects Oscar bait from Pine-Thomas's budget productions. Still, the cast appears motivated, while the script, though convoluted, has a couple good twists. I'm particularly impressed with an animated Reed who too often delivered wooden performances, but not here. Seems he's playing editor of a city newspaper that's trying to take down the town's gambling casinos. At the same time he's working to keep his staff together while trying to accommodate the boss's ambitious daughter. But things aren't always as they seem, as he eventually finds out.
Kudos to director Thomas—half of the Pine-Thomas producing team—who shows skill at directing. I wouldn't be surprised if his presence behind the camera had a lot to do with motivating the cast. My only gripe is with the under-use of the great Hillary Brooke. Her regal presence always adds to movie proceedings. Here, however, she doesn't have much to do after the opening scene.
Anyway, nothing memorable here, just a good little time-passer based on a popular radio program of the time.
Kudos to director Thomas—half of the Pine-Thomas producing team—who shows skill at directing. I wouldn't be surprised if his presence behind the camera had a lot to do with motivating the cast. My only gripe is with the under-use of the great Hillary Brooke. Her regal presence always adds to movie proceedings. Here, however, she doesn't have much to do after the opening scene.
Anyway, nothing memorable here, just a good little time-passer based on a popular radio program of the time.
This was the first movie I watched in a DVD collection of 50 "Crime Classics" from Mill Creek that I found in Movie Stop for $6.99. At about 14 cents per movie, I thought it was a pretty good deal. I was glad to see that this was a good transfer and the black and white detail was sharp.
This isn't quite film noir, but one can see a film noir influence. There are lots of night shots, characters who have psychological problems and a near femme fatale in Ann Gillis.
This is a B movie with "C" sets and a "B" script. It moves well and has some unexpected and unusual twists. There's nothing to knock your socks off, but the dialogue is sharp enough to get you smiling here and there.
Hillary Brook is her usual blonde ice self. She has an ephemeral presence, just floating through her scenes delivery her lines well, but without much thought or emotion.
The story is gallant and savvy newspaper reporters battling crooks. Watch for a funny inside reference to the classic newspaper play "The Front Page" at the beginning.
I understand from the reviews that there were three other Big Town movies. I am looking forward to seeing them, and looking forward to watching the 45 or so more movies in this collection that I haven't seen.
This isn't quite film noir, but one can see a film noir influence. There are lots of night shots, characters who have psychological problems and a near femme fatale in Ann Gillis.
This is a B movie with "C" sets and a "B" script. It moves well and has some unexpected and unusual twists. There's nothing to knock your socks off, but the dialogue is sharp enough to get you smiling here and there.
Hillary Brook is her usual blonde ice self. She has an ephemeral presence, just floating through her scenes delivery her lines well, but without much thought or emotion.
The story is gallant and savvy newspaper reporters battling crooks. Watch for a funny inside reference to the classic newspaper play "The Front Page" at the beginning.
I understand from the reviews that there were three other Big Town movies. I am looking forward to seeing them, and looking forward to watching the 45 or so more movies in this collection that I haven't seen.
"Big Town After Dark" is a decent B-movie from tiny Pine-Thomas, a company known for its mediocre and sub-par Bs. Fortunately, this is one of the better films they made.
Steve (Phillip Reed) is the managing editor of a newspaper. His day is looking pretty glum when his star reporter, Lorelei (Hillary Brooke) announces she's quitting to become a literary writer. He's desperate to keep her there...but he has another problem to deal with...his boss wants him to hire the niece...and she has no experience at a newspaper. Then Steve gets an idea....use the boss' niece to try to keep Lorelei with the paper. Little did he know that this would NOT be a particularly good idea!
This film has a lot of noir elements--the nasty bossman who runs the town and a local gambling den, folks getting the snot knocked out of them and murder! Well worth seeing and an interesting story once it got going.
Steve (Phillip Reed) is the managing editor of a newspaper. His day is looking pretty glum when his star reporter, Lorelei (Hillary Brooke) announces she's quitting to become a literary writer. He's desperate to keep her there...but he has another problem to deal with...his boss wants him to hire the niece...and she has no experience at a newspaper. Then Steve gets an idea....use the boss' niece to try to keep Lorelei with the paper. Little did he know that this would NOT be a particularly good idea!
This film has a lot of noir elements--the nasty bossman who runs the town and a local gambling den, folks getting the snot knocked out of them and murder! Well worth seeing and an interesting story once it got going.
Did you know
- TriviaThe failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
- Quotes
Susan Peabody LaRue: [putting down her poker hand] Full house, kings on the roof.
- Crazy creditsOpening credits are shown on the playing cards of a gambling table.
- ConnectionsFollowed by Big Town Scandal (1948)
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Underworld After Dark
- Filming locations
- Los Angeles City Hall - 200 North Spring Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA(N Spring St entrance)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 9 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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