A newspaper columnist (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is in love with a struggling actress (Frances Dee). When the actress is blackmailed by a mobster (Lyle Talbot), he attempts to intervene but this intervention will end badly. Based on the novel by Rian James and directed by William A. Wellman (THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY). For the film's first twenty minutes, I thought I was watching a pre code romantic comedy. Then it suddenly turns dark until we get blackmail, murder and the covering up of that murder. I found the movie's romantic cynicism and the lack of a "happy" ending refreshing and the murderer even gets away with it! The junior Fairbanks is at his most appealing and there's a nice turn by Lee Tracy as his best friend. A neat little romcom with a dose of arsenic that should be better known. With Ann Dvorak, Warren Hymer and Cecil Cunningham.
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