Date and Time
- Friday, Nov 7, 2025 7pm
Details
Special Features: Intro by film historian Danny Reid | Reid and Kim Luperi will sign copies of their book “Pre-Code Essentials: Must-See Cinema from Hollywood’s Untamed Years, 1930–1934” — available for purchase at the Silver concession stand — before and after the show
Lew Ayres stars as a fast-talking tabloid gossip columnist and radio broadcaster — a power broker and provocateur clearly modeled on real-life newspaperman Walter Winchell (who, 25 years later, also inspired the ruthless Burt Lancaster character in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS). This was the first Hollywood feature to directly reflect the national trauma of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, and one of four Winchell-inspired films released within a five-month span in 1932. When the daughter (Margaret Lindsay) of a cabinet secretary is abducted, Ayres’ character leverages his underworld connections to track down the racketeers responsible. He then uses his political clout to relay the gang’s demands — via mob boss (Edward Arnold in his talkie debut) — directly to the president. Shifting gears from sharp satire to gripping melodrama, the film, much like THIS DAY AND AGE, ultimately implies that the government lacks the ability to confront organized crime, leaving vigilante-style justice as the only recourse.
