Truly Dreadful Film

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Absolutely brilliant

A Brilliant Conflict

A bad editorial decision causes New York newspaper editor Paul Muni to be fired then suddenly due to contract stipulations be "demoted" to editor of a love-lorn column, run anonymously by someone named "Nellie". Muni's old girlfriend, Glenda Farrell, who previously ran the column (and desperately wanted off) is promoted, while new editor (and Muni's old rival) Douglas Dumbrille rubs his promotion into Muni's face. Even the newly hired page refers to the humiliated Muni as "Nellie", and in a fit of anger, Muni destroys his office and heads out to get drunk. But with words of encouragement from Farrell and the hopes of secretly clearing his name in the bank scandal which got him demoted in the first place gives Muni hope that he'll be able to get through this down-phase of his career and move back up the ladder.Well written and extremely well acted, this newspaper comedy with serious overtones is a change of pace for veteran theater actor Muni who never had, and never would again, star in a movie comedy. He reminds me very much of Fredric March here with his crisp, cynical performance, Farrell an excellent foil and supported by such excellent character actors as Ned Sparks, Donald Meek, Berton Churchill, Marjorie Gateson and Robert Barrat, with special mention going to Sidney Miller as the spunky office boy who isn't afraid of cracking wise with the veterans at the paper. Meek is very amusing in a scene where he tells Miller not to kow-tow to him, because he has been an office boy himself for over 40 years.

Hi, Nellie is one of the most arch, hilarious movie titles I've ever encountered. At first it sounds banal, but as it's tossed around in different scenes by different characters, it gets funnier and funnier. There's a barroom scene that's a howler.But rather than just a prop for the title's running gag, the story is quite interesting on its own. It involves a newspaper and corruption and a missing banker, and things aren't what they seem. We're taken through some amazing sets. it's impressive to see how many resources were plowed into them by the studio, from tracking shots of the cavernous newsroom, of teeming city streets, of the interior of an elaborate nightclub, all following Paul Muni, who, by the way, is a rough-and-tumble editor relegated to the lovelorn column by his publisher.And this is a great showcase for Muni. Most of his scenes show him in closeup. Remember, Cagney had Public Enemy and Muni had Scarface, both intensely focused on their personas. I think Muni, because of his stage background, overdraws his character in movie closeups. (He may have won the Oscar for Louis Pasteur because he wore a beard that restrained his over-expressiveness.) But hey, it's Muni, and it's fun to see him do his stuff.This is a comedy-crime flick, fast-paced, with rapid-fire dialog between great Warner players, so you have to pay attention. There's a scene where a dim young reporter tells Muni that the children's picnic he was assigned to cover didn't occur because the boat taking the kids to the venue ran aground on a sandbar and broke up, so he only had one paragraph to report. This is great stuff!

Paul Muni plays a newspaper editor who refuses to run a story accusing a missing man of embezzlement without proof. All the other papers in town run the story and Muni, who's under contract, is subsequently demoted to the lonely hearts column. There he writes advice to the lovelorn under the name of Nellie Nelson. While working on the column he unexpectedly gets a lead that may solve the case of the missing man and get him his editor job back.Fun, well-paced WB crime drama with touches of comedy. Muni's terrific and is backed up by a great cast, including the always enjoyable Glenda Farrell, Douglas Dumbrille, Donald Meek, Berton Churchill, and many more fine character actors. Ned Sparks, master of the deadpan delivery, steals every scene he's in. Remade several times but this is the best.

In that stretch of years between his performance in I'm A Fugitive From A Chain Gang and The Story Of Louis Pasteur, Paul Muni hit a dry patch with his home studio of Warner Brothers. They put him in a series of films way beneath his talent when you consider what he subsequently did and I'm told he particularly despised this film. From his point of view I can see why.Still Hi, Nellie! is not all that bad, though I think Muni was definitely a second choice. James Cagney must have been doing something else at the time. The film has the feel of a project meant for Cagney.Knowing that and knowing how much he wanted to do much more serious parts Muni pulls out all the stops and hams it up to beat the Philharmonic. I guess he had to have some fun.Muni is your hardboiled editor of a city newspaper, a very typical part for the Thirties. But when he uncharacteristically soft pedals a story about a bank folding and a prominent civic leader disappearing, he gets himself demoted. Publisher Berton Churchill can't fire him because of a contract, but instead demotes him to the writer of the advice to the lovelorn column. That's a source of great amusement to all those who were under him before, especially Glenda Farrell who was writing that column and wanted a chance for some hard hitting journalism.But Paul is nothing else if not resourceful and when a chance sob sister letter comes to his attention that might give him a lead on that story that he got in a sling over, he runs with it.Warner Brothers and director Mervyn LeRoy gave Paul a really good cast to support him with Donald Meek playing the world's oldest office boy, Douglass Dumbrille as the editor who succeeds Muni, and Robert Barrat as the political boss of the city and ultimate villain of the piece.It's not Zola, or Pasteur, but Hi, Nellie is not half bad as entertainment. Just not up to Paul Muni's exacting standards.