Fired from FOX after going on one too many alcoholic benders, Spencer Tracy immediately landed @ M-G-M for this modest programmer where he plays a top newsman prone to disappearing . . . on alcoholic benders!* Type casting . . . or warning from the staid studio? And he’s not the only newbie on set, playing his backup man, James Stewart, remarkably assured & funny in a sixth-billed Hollywood debut. Not much else to note here, standard doings as director/co-writer Tim Whelan dutifully lays out the murder of a bank manager who’s been robbing Peter to pay Paul on a Ponzi scheme with help from another banker. Banker #2 is a crook, alright; in fact, he’s one of the people who swindled Tracy’s late mom out of her savings. But a murderer? Tracy knows the real culprit, but embittered by his mother’s death, he just might let the guy smoke in the electric chair. A big confession scene toward the end gives a peak into Tracy’s potential, but the rest of the film is strictly dullsville, with Tracy & love interest Virginia Bruce getting nowhere.
DOUBLE-BILL: Tracy & Stewart reteamed as co-stars, supplying rubber for the war effort in a by-the-numbers WWII adventure, MALAYA/’49.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *If it seems odd to welcome Tracy with a throwaway programmer, the original plan at the studio called for something splashier with Spence backing Jean Harlow in RIFFRAFF. Delayed by ‘scheduling’ conflicts, the film’s script is such a mess, it was likely pushed back for rewrites.
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