A Major Disappointment

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Bill is a hotshot newsreel cameraman...and he seems willing to take almost any risk to get great footage. On one of his outings, he comes upon a lady reporter, Jane (Frances Dee), and he's immediately infatuated since she is just about as crazy as he is and she has a very snappy mouth! It seems like a relationship made in Heaven. However, Jane's father was a newsreel man and drank himself to death...and she wants nothing to do with a guy who reminds her of Daddy. But Bill isn't to be dissuaded...even when she shows up with Hal (Ralph Bellamy)...and EVERYONE familiar with old time movies know exactly what that means. After all, Bellamy made a bazillion films in which he was the boyfriend who ultimately just about ALWAYS loses the girl to the star! So you know ultimately, Hal is going to be left alone and without a fiancé by the end of the picture!All in all, this was a pretty good B-movie. Plus, when it came out in 1933 folks DIDN'T yet know that Bellamy playing the fiancé meant he'd be left out in the cold! Worth seeing and fun.

Headline Shooter (1933)** (out of 4) Boring crime picture from RKO about Bill Allen (William Gargan), a newsreel photographer who is constantly trying to get the next "big" story. Back in the office he falls for the lovely Jane (Frances Dee) but she's already taken by Hal (Ralph Bellamy). Soon all three paths are about to cross when Bill gathers some video footage of something that might destroy many people. HEADLINE SHOOTER is pretty much one cliché after another without anything good going for it. If you're someone like me who enjoys checking out these forgotten "B" movies then this one here offers a few things but most would be best served to just skip it. Believe it or not but we've actually got a pretty good cast of characters here with Bellamy being a bit shaky but it's always great to see him and notice that even in his early days he always turned out to be the "other guy." Robert Benchley is also on hand in a small part as is Wallace Ford, Jack LaRue, Betty Furness and Henry B. Walthall appears in an uncredited part. Dee is pretty entertaining in her bit but the entire love triangle is just downright boring. Gargan isn't really leading man material, at least not in this role, as he has trouble keeping you interested in what he's doing and he just doesn't have any charm to win the viewer over.

Seven years before Howard Hawks had the idea to do "The Front Page" with a woman as a reporter, practically the same idea crops up in this fast-paced pre-code look at journalism. William Gargan is good in the Grant role (Lee Tracy at that time would have been better), a cynical semi-corrupt newsreel reporter, and Frances Dee is wide-eyed and acceptable but she'll make you miss Rosalind Russell. At least you have Ralph Bellamy in the Ralph Bellamy role. Gargan and Dee trade quips and try to outfox each other on the way to the inevitable conclusion. Some nice pre-code elements: Gargan tells Dee about a girl he knew that had a cold and she instantly snaps back, "yeah, I know, she kept you up all night." Wallace Ford plays his role as Gargan's drunken friend at full-stagger and there's lots of illicit booze ("that bottle cost me $50!" proclaims Gargan's boss and Bellamy calms his wife with "a taste of moon".) Nice shading on the usual black-and-white of our heroes as Gargan causes a suicide and Dee tricks a woman into a possibly lethal confession. The criminals also seem entertaining even as they remain dangerous. With a better, more "A" cast, this film could have been very, very good. And don't miss Robert Benchley in a fine comic cameo providing a radio commentary for a beauty pageant.

"Headline Shooter" is a quick-moving, entertaining little film with excellent use of contemporary newsreel footage. A hotshot independent newsreel cameraman (Gargan), always on the prowl for a great story, crosses paths and falls in love with a newspaper columnist (Dee). Trouble is, she's already engaged to... who else but the classic "other man" of the 30's Ralph Bellamy. There's plenty of snappy dialog and well integrated newsreel footage of contemporary disasters including the Long Beach earthquake, a brewery fire, a race car crash, and a flood. There is even some attempt at realism in portraying accurate camera equipment in a distinct difference between the motor-run sound cameras and the hand-cranked silent camera that Wallace Ford uses. It's obvious he's a lower budget operation although his crank speed looks suspiciously faster than the standard one crank per second. Quibbling aside, this picture is certainly worth a look to film buffs. There's even a reference to using Nitrate film as a fire starter.