Adventure in Washington ** (1941, Herbert Marshall, Virginia Bruce, Gene Reynolds, Samuel S Hinds, Ralph Morgan) – Classic Movie Review 13,712

The 1941 drama film Adventure in Washington stars Herbert Marshall as a US Senator who agrees to a appoint a juvenile delinquent (Gene Reynolds) as a Senate page boy, causing a Congressional scandal.

Director Alfred E Green’s 1941 Columbia Pictures American black and white drama film Adventure in Washington is written by Lewis R Foster and Arthur Caesar, based on a story by Jeanne Spencer and Albert Benham, and stars Herbert Marshall, Virginia Bruce, Gene Reynolds, Samuel S Hinds, and Ralph Morgan.

Herbert Marshall stars as nice US Senator John Coleridge, who reluctantly agrees to take on orphaned streetwise teenage delinquent Marty Driscoll (17-year old Gene Reynolds) and appoint him a Senate page boy.

But Marty continues to be a troublemaker, leaving Coleridge trying to reform the dishonest young messenger boy who is selling state secrets on Wall Street to brokers who make a mint.

Sure this adventure in Washington is unusual, but it is a highly unlikely tale, and pretty feeble and unconvincing in the telling, with Marshall looking uncomfortable, particularly in his character’s close friendship/ romance with chattering radio commentator Jane Scott (Virginia Bruce).

Keeping the story relevant, Jane is fighting for acceptance in male-dominated reporting, and Coleridge comes to respect her skills as a reporter and insights into human nature.

It might have been better with original choice Mickey Rooney but he turned down the role of Marty Driscoll.

The US Office of Censorship blocked International distribution of the film because of concerns that the storyline’s portrayal of the bribing of a Senate page would hinder the war effort.

Congressman Donald McLean denounced in the US House of Representatives the film’s portrayal of things that didn’t happen in real life. A Senate page himself 40 years earlier, he said it would ‘undermine the confidence of the electorate’.

Cast: Herbert Marshall, Virginia Bruce, Gene Reynolds, Samuel S Hinds, Ralph Morgan, Vaughan Glaser, Charles Smith, Dickie Jones, Pierre Watkin, J M Kerrigan, Tommy Bond, Billy Dawson, Charles Lind, Mary Currier.

It was released in the UK as Female Correspondent.

Shooting took place between February 12, 1941 and March 24, 1941 and the film was released on May 30, 1941.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,712

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