Headline Shooter (1933)

Good movie but grossly overrated

A Masterpiece!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Someone else here has mentioned that William Gargan doesn't have enough charm to carry off this kind of leading man role. That may be a perfect critique of why he rarely made it into the leading man category, even in B films. But he does have acting talent, and a natural acting technique far beyond what most leading men were exhibiting even as late as 1933, so he was a natural enough actor for a certain kind of rough and ready lead. He carries the macho and bravery elements off very well here, the romance a little less so, and Frances Dee, who could give half of the actresses back then and all of the currently-practicing ones lessons in unforced charm, is a distinct asset as a sob sister reporter who is as manic in her own area as he is behind a camera. This was one of Ralph Bellamy's earliest other-man-as-loser roles, but usually he was losing the heroine to Cary Grant, Gary Cooper or Fredric March; to lose her to William Gargan is almost insulting! Frances Dee was hardly your go-to actress for near manic career girls, but she handles the role very well and it is fairly obvious early on that Stalwart Ralph will lose her to Tough Bill, and after she steals Tough Bill's car to file a story first, who knows if even Tough Bill will be able to hold onto this young woman? Anyway, this is a pretty effective B film, with excellently integrated newsreel shots of fires, floods and other disasters. Some of the sets integrating Gargan, Wallace Ford, Hobart Cavanaugh and Jack LaRue into such goings-on are fairly huge for a B budget and manage to make the film look a bit more expensive than it obviously was. Stereotypical it may be, but the actors all acquit themselves well, the feeling for relationships between them is quite solid, Bellamy may lose the girl but he still manages to be pretty heroic, and the camera-work (given that this is a movie very much ABOUT camera-work) is quite good throughout. As his leading roles went, this is most definitely one of Gargan's best opportunities, and he plays it pretty much for all it is worth - except for that fatal lack of real charm, especially "Irish-American charm", which is much needed here and that he had so much of in real life. (I can still clearly recall his appearances in his anti-cancer crusade after he had lost his voice and career to that disease while only in his fifties - maybe the first actor to ever go public with such a disability - and where he almost reeked of a combination of goodness and charm!) Still, pretty good going by all concerned, and worth a watch. A thought: Perhaps the defining difference between leading men back in the 1930s and leading men today is that that previous era's leading men all assumed a certain maturity perhaps unwarranted by their actual years (think of Clark Gable, Fred MacMurray and even James Stewart in the 1930s); both Gargan and Bellamy were still in their twenties here, but they seem to have experienced an awful lot of living in their looks and acting styles - whereas most of today's leading men, some of whom have been around for a quarter-century and are now in their early fifties, still seem to have a late twenties or early thirties age sensibility about them - think Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves. The only modern major actor I can think of who has arrived on the scene (20 years back now) with a maturity of aspect and attitude far in advance of his years is George Clooney.

Bill is a hotshot newsreel cameraman...and he seems willing to take almost any risk to get great footage. On one of his outings, he comes upon a lady reporter, Jane (Frances Dee), and he's immediately infatuated since she is just about as crazy as he is and she has a very snappy mouth! It seems like a relationship made in Heaven. However, Jane's father was a newsreel man and drank himself to death...and she wants nothing to do with a guy who reminds her of Daddy. But Bill isn't to be dissuaded...even when she shows up with Hal (Ralph Bellamy)...and EVERYONE familiar with old time movies know exactly what that means. After all, Bellamy made a bazillion films in which he was the boyfriend who ultimately just about ALWAYS loses the girl to the star! So you know ultimately, Hal is going to be left alone and without a fiancé by the end of the picture!All in all, this was a pretty good B-movie. Plus, when it came out in 1933 folks DIDN'T yet know that Bellamy playing the fiancé meant he'd be left out in the cold! Worth seeing and fun.

Seven years before Howard Hawks had the idea to do "The Front Page" with a woman as a reporter, practically the same idea crops up in this fast-paced pre-code look at journalism. William Gargan is good in the Grant role (Lee Tracy at that time would have been better), a cynical semi-corrupt newsreel reporter, and Frances Dee is wide-eyed and acceptable but she'll make you miss Rosalind Russell. At least you have Ralph Bellamy in the Ralph Bellamy role. Gargan and Dee trade quips and try to outfox each other on the way to the inevitable conclusion. Some nice pre-code elements: Gargan tells Dee about a girl he knew that had a cold and she instantly snaps back, "yeah, I know, she kept you up all night." Wallace Ford plays his role as Gargan's drunken friend at full-stagger and there's lots of illicit booze ("that bottle cost me $50!" proclaims Gargan's boss and Bellamy calms his wife with "a taste of moon".) Nice shading on the usual black-and-white of our heroes as Gargan causes a suicide and Dee tricks a woman into a possibly lethal confession. The criminals also seem entertaining even as they remain dangerous. With a better, more "A" cast, this film could have been very, very good. And don't miss Robert Benchley in a fine comic cameo providing a radio commentary for a beauty pageant.

"Headline Shooter" is a quick-moving, entertaining little film with excellent use of contemporary newsreel footage. A hotshot independent newsreel cameraman (Gargan), always on the prowl for a great story, crosses paths and falls in love with a newspaper columnist (Dee). Trouble is, she's already engaged to... who else but the classic "other man" of the 30's Ralph Bellamy. There's plenty of snappy dialog and well integrated newsreel footage of contemporary disasters including the Long Beach earthquake, a brewery fire, a race car crash, and a flood. There is even some attempt at realism in portraying accurate camera equipment in a distinct difference between the motor-run sound cameras and the hand-cranked silent camera that Wallace Ford uses. It's obvious he's a lower budget operation although his crank speed looks suspiciously faster than the standard one crank per second. Quibbling aside, this picture is certainly worth a look to film buffs. There's even a reference to using Nitrate film as a fire starter.