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Is My Face Red? (1932)

Is My Face Red?

1932

  • RKO Radio Pictures
  • Directed by William A. Seiter
  • Screenplay by Casey Robinson, Ben Markson
  • Starring Helen Twelvetrees, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond, Robert Armstrong, Arline Judge

Synopsis

William Poster (Cortez), a fast-talking, fast thinking, smart-alecky reporter, writes a gossip column called Keyhole to the City and prints names, no matter the consequences. The popularity of his column is the envy of other newspapermen, especially Ed Maloney (Armstrong) of a rival newspaper. His sweetheart Peggy Bannon (Twelvetrees), a showgirl, gives him information for the column.

Poster goes onboard a ship to take a look at an heiress, Mildred Huntington (Esmond), who split from her fiancé and is sailing to Europe. Mildred and Poster become very friendly, and she goes back to New York with him on the pilot boat. He plans to take her places. He misses a date with Peggy and, trying to placate her, takes her to a speakeasy. As they are sitting in a booth, Tony (Sidney Toler), the bar owner fights and kills another man. Tony threatens Postor, who writes about the murder anyway.

Away from his office and Peggy, Poster is courting Mildred. On her yacht he meets her drunken friends. He proposes to the heiress and gives her a ring that he had previously given Peggy. In his column, he writes about Mildred's friends. Both women turn on him. Peggy tells Mahoney about Poster and the two women. Mahoney writes the story, but before it is published, Poster writes his own story about being jilted. Poster says that he can dish it out, and he can take it too. Poster is alone in his office when Tony climbs the fire escape, confronts and shoots him. Mahoney brings Poster flowers in the hospital and shows him the headlines: Mahoney has participated in the capture of Tony and scooped Poster with the story of his own shooting.

Discussion

Is My Face Red? offers a fun example of the archetypal fast-talking, brazen reporter who was a leading or supporting character in many early talkies. Other notable actors who played impudent newspaper reporters during the 1930s include Pat O'Brien in The Front Page, Lee Tracy in Blessed Event and Doctor X, James Cagney in The Picture Snatcher, and Bette Davis in Front Page Woman. Audiences enjoy watching these dynamic, smart-alecky, and fast-thinking characters. Their devil-may-care attitude and willingness to go anywhere and do anything in order to discover and report the news provides thrills and amusement.