Nathanael West had published a scathing satire about the newspaper business called 'Miss Lonelyhearts.' Effectively mixing humor with pathos, the story was adapted by Darryl Zanuck for his 20th Century Pictures banner as a screwball comedy-drama. Zanuck had just left his post in charge of production at Warner Brothers, so this independent effort resembles a WB precode.
Zanuck hired Lee Tracy for the main role of a fast-talking reporter who suffers from foot-in-mouth disease. It is the type of character that Mr. Tracy excelled at playing. This time the actor is much more manic than usual. The moment we first see him on screen he is drying out in a drunk tank when an earthquake hits. This spurs him into action. His convalescence now over, he's ready to resume work for a tyrannical editor (Paul Harvey).
Since Tracy missed an important deadline while on a bender, Harvey decides to punish him by putting him in charge of an advice column. The regular writer has suffered a personal crisis and quit the paper. Tracy is made to continue the column under the Miss Lonelyhearts byline...something he is loathe to do. But since he is under contract and would be blackballed in the industry if he walked, Tracy has no choice. He sits down at his typewriter and starting pounding out words of wisdom for the many lovelorn readers who follow this column each day.
Assisting Tracy in the endeavor is a secretary played by Sterling Holloway. I don't recall Mr. Holloway getting so much screen time as he does in this picture. He and Tracy have an oddball chemistry that works perfectly for this sort of offbeat material. Holloway's character is loyal to a fault. On one occasion, he even takes a sock in the eye that's intended for Tracy.
The column becomes more successful, and the paper's circulation increases exponentially. Of course, Tracy doesn't really respect his readers and often his advice is tongue-in-cheek. He occasionally slips in references to a discount seller of pharmaceuticals. For his efforts plugging the knockoff drugs, he earns an extra $1100 a week. It's money Tracy intends to use to buy a new home for his ma (Jean Adair). He is also going to marry his girlfriend (Sally Blane).
Miss Blane, who very much resembles sister Loretta Young, does a most credible job providing romantic sparks. She's a nice gal that brings out the best in Tracy and helps look after his ailing mother. However, the story takes a dramatic turn when the elderly woman suffers a heart attack and is given some of the inferior medicine that Tracy's been pushing in the column. A doctor is summoned, but she dies.
This causes Tracy to declare a word of words on the drug company each day in the paper, advising his readers to boycott the chain and its products. A tragedy has turned him into the type of crusading reporter he started out to be. What I found interesting about this dramatic segment of the film was how bootleggers had switched to drug rackets after prohibition ended. So in a way, we get additional commentary about social conditions during these years of the Depression.
West's book is much bleaker in tone than this film. It was adapted again in 1958 by Dore Schary. That time Montgomery Clift played the lead character, and the script was a bit more faithful to the novel. Either way both films are fairly well-made, and in this case, Lee Tracy gives a marvelous performance that keeps us engaged. Take my advice, you will enjoy watching this one.
Zanuck hired Lee Tracy for the main role of a fast-talking reporter who suffers from foot-in-mouth disease. It is the type of character that Mr. Tracy excelled at playing. This time the actor is much more manic than usual. The moment we first see him on screen he is drying out in a drunk tank when an earthquake hits. This spurs him into action. His convalescence now over, he's ready to resume work for a tyrannical editor (Paul Harvey).
Since Tracy missed an important deadline while on a bender, Harvey decides to punish him by putting him in charge of an advice column. The regular writer has suffered a personal crisis and quit the paper. Tracy is made to continue the column under the Miss Lonelyhearts byline...something he is loathe to do. But since he is under contract and would be blackballed in the industry if he walked, Tracy has no choice. He sits down at his typewriter and starting pounding out words of wisdom for the many lovelorn readers who follow this column each day.
Assisting Tracy in the endeavor is a secretary played by Sterling Holloway. I don't recall Mr. Holloway getting so much screen time as he does in this picture. He and Tracy have an oddball chemistry that works perfectly for this sort of offbeat material. Holloway's character is loyal to a fault. On one occasion, he even takes a sock in the eye that's intended for Tracy.
The column becomes more successful, and the paper's circulation increases exponentially. Of course, Tracy doesn't really respect his readers and often his advice is tongue-in-cheek. He occasionally slips in references to a discount seller of pharmaceuticals. For his efforts plugging the knockoff drugs, he earns an extra $1100 a week. It's money Tracy intends to use to buy a new home for his ma (Jean Adair). He is also going to marry his girlfriend (Sally Blane).
Miss Blane, who very much resembles sister Loretta Young, does a most credible job providing romantic sparks. She's a nice gal that brings out the best in Tracy and helps look after his ailing mother. However, the story takes a dramatic turn when the elderly woman suffers a heart attack and is given some of the inferior medicine that Tracy's been pushing in the column. A doctor is summoned, but she dies.
This causes Tracy to declare a word of words on the drug company each day in the paper, advising his readers to boycott the chain and its products. A tragedy has turned him into the type of crusading reporter he started out to be. What I found interesting about this dramatic segment of the film was how bootleggers had switched to drug rackets after prohibition ended. So in a way, we get additional commentary about social conditions during these years of the Depression.
West's book is much bleaker in tone than this film. It was adapted again in 1958 by Dore Schary. That time Montgomery Clift played the lead character, and the script was a bit more faithful to the novel. Either way both films are fairly well-made, and in this case, Lee Tracy gives a marvelous performance that keeps us engaged. Take my advice, you will enjoy watching this one.