People are voting emotionally.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Hi, Dolly!", a copy boy screams to the new advice column editor after he is demoted from managing editor. In this remake of the 1934 film "Hi, Nellie!", it is Wayne Morris who gets the insulting nickname. Several years later, June Allyson would change the "Hi" to "Hello" when she greeted a gossip columnist in "The Opposite Sex". So don't confuse these two Dolly's with everybody's favorite matchmaker in a play and musical that featured an explanation point at the end of its title.Morris is supported by Janis Paige as a fellow advice columnist, Alan Hale Sr. as his boss, and Bruce Bennett, James Mitchell and Barbara Bates as the villains. The ever recognizable Charles Lane has a major small role as a nasty landlord that Morris encounters while investigating the murder which gets him demoted. Paige is great in her last film under her Warners contract (before she found Broadway fame in the original "Pajama Game") playing a down-to-earth girl who is less glamorous or earthy than her usual characters. And yes, that is "All My Children's" Palmer Cortlandt as the slimy gangster, even though James Mitchell's voice is not as recognizable as his face is.This is a typical Warner Brothers crime thriller with comic elements. An out of place barber shop quartet number has a nice payoff even if it seems 30 years too late.

Had this B film remake of Hi Nellie been done during the Thirties before the war my guess is that Warner Brothers probably would have included a lot more action. Other than James Mitchell roughing up Wayne Morris a bit there's no real action in this film, not even the sound of a gun firing. Unusual when you consider the villain is a gangster.]The House Across The Street had more of an accent on comedy with Wayne Morris being demoted to the advice to the lovelorn column after refusing to back off an expose of gangster Bruce Bennett. It's not that publisher Alan Hale isn't in his corner, but Morris hasn't got any proof and Bennett is doing the ungangster like thing of suing for libel. But curiously enough a woman who had not had her letter to the column answered, Lila Leeds came up and gives Morris the lowdown on her problem with boyfriend James Holden. She inadvertently provides a clue that starts Morris on the trail of linking Bennett to the murder of a state's witness.Morris gets plenty of help, good help from the former sob sister at the paper, Janis Paige. She's got good reporter's instincts and was never really given a chance to prove them while Morris was the city editor. Now she's helping, but giving Wayne a few jabs in the process.The House Across The Street is a nice competently made B film that I'm sure 1949 audiences enjoyed while waiting for the main feature from Warner Brothers to start. It's fast and funny and a real treat.

I do not know if this would be considered a classic, but it is a nice little film starring Wayne Morris, who by the late 1940's was not seen in too many starring roles in Hollywood. Morris gives a good performance as a newspaper man trying to expose criminal kingpin Bruce Bennett as a murderer. Good pacing, simple script with some fine witty dialogue. I saw this movie during a cold and blustery snowstorm. This is the kind of film that used to grace our late late movies. I sure could use more of this kind of entertainment on tv in the wee hours of morning instead of so many infomercials. Check this one out if it is ever on. It's worth a watch.MM

A police detective bungles a stakeout, resulting in the murder of a key witness against a crime boss (Bruce Bennett). Against the advice of his skittish publisher, a managing editor (blond bruiser Wayne Morris) launches a hard-hitting campaign against police incompetence. When Bennett, escorted by mouthpiece and torpedo, rattles his sabres, the publisher puts Morris on the Bewildered Hearts column as punishment. And lo and behold, that's where the case gets solved.A problem brought by a lovelorn gal, about an incident involving her drunken boyfriend in a mob-owned nightclub, raises red flags. Morris and his sob-sister girlfriend (Janis Paige) start pursuing the story, despite kicks in the shins, threats from guns and almost being run down by a careening black sedan. It turns out that a snapshot taken by the club's roving photographer conceals incriminating evidence....The House Across the Street stays a fairly generic crime programmer, even down to its attempts at comic and romantic relief. Luckily, the story stays reasonably tight, centering on why and where the boyfriend vanished that dimly remembered night. Its biggest puzzle is its title: The House Across the Street refers to the residence being staked out at the movie's beginning; it's no more than the wick that kindles the plot.