This one will be short and I’m not going to summarize the entire plot. Despite this being a pre-code film that’s only an hour long, there’s a lot of convoluted plot.
This a movie about competitiveness in writing circles. The U.S. government announces the opening of Fort Knox and how it will keep the nation’s economy protected (yes, Fort Knox was built in the 1930s). Eddie Haines (Lee Tracy) is a radio reporter who always out-scoops everyone because he has a radio set up in his coat to report instantly. His ex-girlfriend Mary Bradley (Diana Gibson) works for a newspaper and purposely listens in on his broadcast (after accidentally getting him fired). She’s so determined to out-scoop Eddie, Mary follows the same lead as him while he’s trying to prove to the radio that they should re-hire him. She ends up kidnapped by gangsters led by a corrupt federal agent planning on robbing a gold shipment to Fort Knox. Eddie is blamed for her disappearance, but she leaves clues that only he knows how to follow. As both Eddie and Mary foil the bad guys in different ways, he realizes that he, of course, still loves her. In the end, he lets her have the story and she says on the radio, “If you want a complete account of what happened, read my New York Star international service story in your local newspaper.”
On the one hand, I understand how reporters like to give the news as soon as possible. However, there are different skills involved in writing a story versus talking through a story while it’s happening. Despite Eddie giving a speech about how the two mediums should not be in competition, they are. It’s just like now, there is a difference between click-bait and legit news however they are in competition for views online.
