Off the Record

1939
Approved
1h 11m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Joan Blondell, Pat O'Brien, and Bobby Jordan in Off the Record (1939)

Reporters Elliott and Morgan accidentally get Mickey sent to reform school through their slot-machine expose. Feeling responsible, they plan to marry and adopt him to secure his release.Reporters Elliott and Morgan accidentally get Mickey sent to reform school through their slot-machine expose. Feeling responsible, they plan to marry and adopt him to secure his release.Reporters Elliott and Morgan accidentally get Mickey sent to reform school through their slot-machine expose. Feeling responsible, they plan to marry and adopt him to secure his release.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

251

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The setting is suggested as New York City in the very beginning by a few notes of the song "The Sidewalks of New York". In the double exposure of newspaper headlines/marble games (pinball) being destroyed by sledgehammers, the destruction depicts true events. Pinball machines were declared illegal and destroyed in New York City at that time. They remained illegal there until 1976.

Goofs
Set in New York, the train shown taking Jane to the Elvira State School is a Southern Pacific train.

Quotes
Thomas 'Breezy' Elliott: Oh, honey, I'm sorry. I don't mean to hurt you all the time, honestly. I'm daffy about you. I want to marry you. I want you to quit this newspaper racket. Nobody ever reads your column anyway.
Jane Morgan: Flossie out front does!
Thomas 'Breezy' Elliott: Oh, so, Flossie reads it. That's 1 out of a circulation of 1,951,351. That makes you better than a million to one per cent and that's certainly a great record.

Crazy credits
The title card and credits are all headlines and stories appearing in a newspaper.

Connections
Referenced in On achève bien les chevaux (1969)

User reviews9

Featured review

Decent B Movie

Off the Record (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A reporter (Joan Blondell) does a story about mobsters hiring kids to guard various gambling rackets, which sets off a fire storm that gets one kid's (Bobby Jordan) brother thrown into jail. The kid, in return, gets sent to reform school, which causes the reporter to feel bad so she marries her editor (Pat O'Brien) so that they can adopt the kid. This Warner "B" film tries to mix various genres but as you can tell, it's basically THE FRONT PAGE meets any gangster period from that era mixed in with an East Side Kids type drama. Jordan, a veteran of the child group, does a pretty good job in his role, although his more emotional scenes don't come off too well. It's the cast that makes this thing worth viewing as Blondell and O'Brien offer up great performances and really deliver the goods. The two have great chemistry together as their comic timing is perfect. Both also share quite a few good scenes with the young Jordan. The movie runs a fast paced 71-minutes, which flows by for the first hour but then loses a bit of steam as we get a silly and predictable side plot dealing with the kid's brother wanting help to break out of prison. This all leads to a predictable conclusion but fans of the "B" genre will get a kick out of the film due to its cast. Fans of them will want to check this out but others can stay clear.