A great deal from the classic newspaper story The Front Page goes into this film
Back In Circulation. Before Rosalind Russell played Hildy Johnson in His Girl
Friday there was Joan Blondell in this film blazing an underappreciated trail for
Russell with her portrayal of a tabloid reporter covering a murder trial.
Blondell who is second billed to Pat O'Brien playing her editor is the heart of this film. She gets an assignment to cover a case involving the death by poison of a wealthy man who married a young wife. Margaret Lindsay is the widow and at first Blondell rips her apart in the press and the stories and pressure from her paper are responsible for her arrest.
But as the trial goes on Blondell gets a change of heart and starts questioning Lindsay's guilt. She is very silent and obviously at least to the movie audience covering something up.
Curiously enough Pat O'Brien who was Hildy Johnson in the first film adaption of The Front Page played editor Walter Burns on stage. In this film I think we are seeing a bit of what O'Brien was like on stage in The Front Page.
Still it's Joan Blondell who drives this film and it is a must for her fans.
Blondell who is second billed to Pat O'Brien playing her editor is the heart of this film. She gets an assignment to cover a case involving the death by poison of a wealthy man who married a young wife. Margaret Lindsay is the widow and at first Blondell rips her apart in the press and the stories and pressure from her paper are responsible for her arrest.
But as the trial goes on Blondell gets a change of heart and starts questioning Lindsay's guilt. She is very silent and obviously at least to the movie audience covering something up.
Curiously enough Pat O'Brien who was Hildy Johnson in the first film adaption of The Front Page played editor Walter Burns on stage. In this film I think we are seeing a bit of what O'Brien was like on stage in The Front Page.
Still it's Joan Blondell who drives this film and it is a must for her fans.