User Reviews

Creaky pre-code, poverty row drama is dampered by the melodramatic performance of Lester Vail as an alcoholic newspaper man determined to get the goods on the head of an organized crime ring, only to find that it's a little too close to home. John Miltern, the respected loveable old judge, and father of his fiancee (Frances Dade), is leading a double life, and his violent reactions to the threat of being exposed end up exposing him to the most precious thing in his life.

Too bad that this crime drama is excruciatingly lifeless, with even the overabundance of enthusiasm of Vail a detriment to the film's impact. It's like a filmed stage play, looking like something from 1928/29 rather than the post-era of sparkling journalism and crime films like "The Front Page", "Five Star Final", "Little Caesar" and "Scarface". An absolute chore to get through, with poor sound, editing and photography in addition to bizarre performances.

Never heard that expression used as frequently as it is in this movie. Lester Vail and Frances Dade are not exactly names that spring to mind when you are thinking of stars that have had an even okay career and it looks like "Big Town" was the movie that put paid to both their careers. Dade was just another starlet whose biggest hit was "Dracula" and Vail was just another stolid leading man whose career never really got into second gear. As with a lot of these obscure films, a lot of the cast seemed to be fly-by- nighters, around only for one or two movies and then disappearing into the night - like Geoffrey Bryant who played eager reporter Riley and Edith Broder as his long suffering wife who turned up every so often with the question "Have you seen Riley"???

"Big Town" - gee, I wonder what this movie is about? Could it be vice and corruption in the big city? Racketeer Romero is due to meet the police to co-operate with the low down about the big boss of big town!! Newshound Riley wants the scoop but they are both hoodwinked by Romero's moll Etheline (Diane Bori, another fly-by-nighter) who squeals to the big boss who sees to it that Romero is taken for a ride.

Vail is Jimmy who has inherited the paper from his father and wants to carry on the tradition of truth and gangland exposure. Also finding time to romance Pat Holmes (Dade) whose square shooting father is - you guessed it, Mr. Big of Big Town. Not a huge amount of action going on, the plot has more to do with Pat's coming to terms with her father's duplicity. Jimmy helps her escape from her father's house by registering her at a hotel under a different name, father sees the name and thinks Jimmy is hiding a floozie so gets the place raided by the police. When he realises he has smeared his own daughter's name over the front pages - there is only one way out!!

On a positive note, never heard Lester Vail so jovial and cracking jokes - I can only remember him as Joan Crawford's blue blood boy friend in "Dance Fools, Dance"(1931).