Big Town ** (1946, Phillip Reed, Hillary Brooke, Veda Ann Borg, Robert Lowery, Byron Barr, Nana Bryant, Charles Arnt) – Classic Movie Review 6344

‘RADIO’S DYNAMIC RACKET BUSTER…on the Screen!‘ The first film in producers William H Pine and William C Thomas’s series based on the Big Town radio series introduces The Illustrated Press’s managing editor Steve Wilson (Phillip Reed) and his female ace crime reporter Lorelei Kilbourne (Hillary Brooke).

This is a promising prospect, but unfortunately, there are simply very few thrills in William C Thomas’s mundane, rather drearily handled and over-familiar 1946 B-movie film noir crime thriller story about editor Steve demanding that the paper’s star reporters, Lorelei Kilbourne and Pete Ryan (Robert Lowery as Pete Ryan) employ yellow journalism reporting to build circulation, prompting them to resign.

Steve sees the error of his ways and brings back Lorelei and Pete, promising The Illustrated Press will instead now become a crusader against evil.

The low-budget movie is commendably short at just 60 minutes, but it is all pretty slow going, and there’s not a really fresh performance or truly brand new idea in sight. The cast simply don’t really spark up very much, but then they don’t have too many decent lines to speak.

It is written by Daniel Mainwaring [writing as Geoffrey Holmes] and Maxwell Shane, shot in black and white by Fred Jackman Jr and scored by Darrell Calker.

Also in the cast are Veda Ann Borg as Vivian LeRoy, Byron Barr as Vance Crane, Charles Arnt as Amos Peabody, Nana Bryant as Mrs Crane, Roy Gordon as Editor Post, Eddie Parks as Gerald Meeker, Nella Walker as Mrs Johannsen and Thomas E. Jackson as Police Chief Berkley.

The film was released on 23 May 1947 by Paramount Pictures. Three more films based on the radio series were made by Paramount Pictures’ Pine-Thomas Productions studio: I Cover Big Town (1947), Big Town after Dark (1947) and by Big Town Scandal (1948), all with Reed and Brooke.

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film’s copyright resulted in it falling into public domain.

The radio programme, produced by William N Robson and Crane Wilbur, and written by Jerry McGill, ran from 19 October 1937 to 25 June 1952, with theme music by Fran Frey. Originally Edward G Robinson and Claire Trevor played  Steve Wilson and Lorelei Kilbourne.

Big Town then moved to TV, broadcast live on CBS from 1950 to 1954, and on NBC from 1955 to 1956. Steve Wilson was played by Patrick McVey  from 1950 to 1954.

DC comic Big Town number 38 (March–April 1956).

It was also later adapted to a comic book published by DC Comics. DC’s Big Town comic book ran 50 issues, from January 1951 to April 1958, edited by Whitney Ellsworth,

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6344

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com