Sued for Libel (1939)

Too much of everything

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

"Drama in the News" radio host and part-time magician Kent Taylor (as Stephen "Steve" Lonegan) receives a phony tip and broadcasts the wrong verdict in a high profile case. The misinformation starts as a practical joke by attractive Linda Hayes (as Maggie Shane), who is really targeting fast-talking reporter Richard Lane (as Smiley Dugan) for targeting her pretty legs with paper-wads from a slingshot. With his station sued for a million dollars, Mr. Taylor decides to investigate the case. Old and new murders add to the mystery. Morgan Conway (as Albert Pomeroy) squirms and Lilian Bond (as Muriel Webster) schemes...****** Sued for Libel (10/27/39) Leslie Goodwins ~ Kent Taylor, Linda Hayes, Lilian Bond, Richard Lane

Nifty little second feature, with a non-cliché plot. I like the way the radio station studio is worked into the narrative. For oldsters like me, it's a trip down memory lane; for youngsters, it's a glimpse of communications before the I-Pad. It's a lively hour with an energetic cast, plus a neat twist at the end, though the in's-and-out's of the murders are sometimes hard to follow. And catch the snappy patter between the newspaper folks, something of a Hollywood cliché of the time. But what always amazes me in these budget features is how folks with big hats can speed down the highway in a convertible without the least windblown effect. Oh well, thanks for rear projection screens that made so many of these B-features commercially possible. No, nothing memorable here. It's just the Hollywood movie factory operating in smooth and entertaining fashion.

RKO described this, to the exhibitors, as: "Bullet-swift action, spine-chilling thrills, seat-glueing suspense, breathless mystery, and a delightful, smartly-dialogued love affair---these are the highlights in this gripping triple murder drama laid against a newspaper and radio background. Revolving around three reporters, a murder suspect, and a mysterious widow, all of whom become enmeshed in a sequence of exciting events set in motion by a front-page murder trail, the story machine-guns to a thunderbolt climax that will leave audience gasping! It's an outstanding whodunit! And what a cast to make it live on your screen! RKO gave the audience: The trial of Albert Pomeroy (Morgan Conway) on the charge of murdering Edward Webster, which arouses interest because Webster's widow, Muriel (Lilian Bond)insists Pomeroy is innocent. Meanwhile, back to radio station NYEB, owned by the Evening Bulletin. Steve Lonegan (Kent Taylor) waits for a flash from Smiley Dugan (Richard Lane, insufferable as always)so he can broadcast the verdict---But Dugan leaves and asks reporter Maggie Dugan (Linda Hayes)to tip him off it something happens...and something happens when the jury comes in unexpectedly (as was always the case when a Richard Lane character is off doing whatever Lane characters went off to do when they were supposed to be doing something else)and this jury comes in with a "Not Guilty" verdict. But fun-loving Maggie, as a gag, phones Smiley and tells him Pomeroy was found guilty, and unreliable (as always) Smiley relays said information to Lonegan who tells a waiting world that Pomeroy was found guilty, signs off the air, locks up the station and goes home...and leaves the station wide open for a million-dollar libel suit.Lonegan and Colonel White (Thurston Hall) decide that the only out from paying Pomeroy a million bucks (in 1939 USA money, or about six trillion dollars in 2006 money)is to dig up something on Pomeroy that will force him to drop the suit, and the good Colonel dispatches Lonegan out to get this done, as no character ever played by bustery Thurston Hall was inclined to pay out money for anything, down to and including getting his shoes shined. So ace-digger Lonegan discovers that a former Pomeroy secretary, Stella Trent , had committed suicide three years earlier, and that a Dr. Bailer was involved. Lonegan (and Maggie) hotfoot it over to Bailer's office, and discover that Bailer has just recently had his throat cut and is more than a little bit dead. Then lawyer Justin Walsh drops by the Evening Bulletin and informs Steve and Colonel White that he has just learned that Pomeroy did indeed kill Webster (see opening trial notes), and he has withdrawn as Pomeroy's attorney. He cites Widow Webster as his source of this information,although, when least heard from, Widow Webster was proclaiming that Pomeroy was innocent. It gets a bit more complex as the frames slowly roll by and, ere long, Lonegan is riding in a car with the real killer but he is the only one in the cast of still-living characters and remaining audience members who doesn't know his car companion is the real killer.The last crew credit on the film reads..."Magic Sequences supervised by Hubert Brill,approved by the International Alliance of Magicians." No telling how that is now being reported.

The studios cranked out a lot of this type of film in the 1930s and 1940s, and this is an example of how cheap and silly they could be. The film overuses what begins as an interesting plot device - a radio dramatization of the news - so that it becomes flatly ridiculous. The story is way too complicated and progressively harder to follow as the picture progresses. The acting ranges from colorless (Kent Taylor) to hilariously over-the-top (Lilian Bond). In short, this is a real time-waster.