This is a nice little Monogram mystery with the always likable Wallace Ford. Ford plays a newspaper reporter, Wally Williams who has just married Jean Parker. On their wedding day a big story breaks (murder of a well known man) and Wally is off to cover it (actually, tricked into covering it by the news editor played by Jed Prouty) and leaves his new bride home alone. Ford, Prouty and Paul Fix (as "Sparrow" a gangster, but "loyal American") do very good jobs and the scenes they're in move along nicely. But what is it with Jean Parker? She was kind of perky and fun in the Kitty O'Day mysteries but here she is bland with little to do (except get kidnapped) and no snappy lines. One of the most interesting things, given the movie's release date, about the movie is that a pacifist group is behind the murders. Sparrow refers to the group as a bunch of foreigners who are Un-American but gangster, such as Sparrow are at least "loyal Americans." Huh? However, if Wallace Ford is in the movie, I'll watch it – I enjoy his work that much.
Review of Roar of the Press
