Big Town After Dark

December. 12,1947      NR
Rating:
5.5
Trailer Synopsis Cast

A crusading newspaper reporter battles big-city gambling interests.

Phillip Reed as  Steve Wilson
Hillary Brooke as  Lorelei Kilbourne
Richard Travis as  Chuck LaRue
Ann Gillis as  Susan Peabody LaRue
Vince Barnett as  Louie Snead
Joe Sawyer as  Monk
Robert Kent as  Jake Sebastian
Charles Arnt as  Amos Peabody
Joseph Allen as  Wally Blake
William Haade as  Marcus

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Reviews

Hellen
1947/12/12

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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Dotsthavesp
1947/12/13

I wanted to but couldn't!

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BallWubba
1947/12/14

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

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Fairaher
1947/12/15

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

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mark.waltz
1947/12/16

What starts off as what seems to reporter Philip Reed's attempt to keep resigning reporter Hilary Brooke from leaving by bringing another female reporter on to take her place ends up being a complex crime drama about the goings on behind the scenes in a crooked gambling joint. Sweet Ann Gillis isn't quite whom she seems to be, bringing intrigue and danger into a newspaper office. The lighthearted banter of the first half becomes surprisingly overly complex as details surrounding Gilli's come to light and leads Reed down seriously dangerous trails in his efforts to expose the crooked ring. Almost as witty as the sardonic dialog between Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in "His Girl Friday" ends up on the other side of the spectrum, giving this B entry into the brief "Big Town" series as close a resemblance to film noir as the series would get. It ain't bad, but a few head scratching moments may make you think that you ended up taking the wrong road off the detour.

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kidboots
1947/12/17

Ann Gillis was one of the many child actors who the studios thought would be another Shirley Temple. It didn't happen - there was only one Shirley and besides Ann wasn't really given much of a chance. Mostly her roles were uncredited bits but she came through as Becky Thatcher in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1938). She was just marvellous in it and was definitely the Becky that everyone remembers - especially in the "cave" scene. Unfortunately, after being mean to Gloria Jean in "The Underpup" (1939) it was back to bit parts and worse. "Big Town After Dark" (based on a popular radio series), the last film she made before her retirement at 20, may have given her her meatiest role since Becky.Lorelei Kilbourne, aka "Goldilocks" (Hilary Brooke) a reporter for the Illustrated Press, is handing in her notice - she has just had her first novel published and has another one in the works. The boss of the paper has a niece, Susan Peabody (Ann Gillis) who is just raring to get into the newspaper business and she is instantly given Goldie's old job as a crime reporter.She is not the innocent she makes out - she cleans out the office in a poker game and admits she learned how to play in the Winner's Club in Big Town. She is all for cleaning up the rackets and convinces the Editor, Wilson (Philip Reed) to run a crusade against them in his paper. With a couple of shady characters following her around, it looks as though she has connections to the local crime boss. (Just how close you find out in the last 10 minutes). When Wilson escorts her to the club, he gets into a fight, after accusing a woman of dealing from the bottom of the deck. Then Susan disappears - Wilson and Lorelei fear a kidnapping. Susan's father is then contacted to pay a ransom. Next thing Susan saunters in with a story of a stolen car and then having to spend the night at her girlfriends. A lot of things don't add up but Goldie and her pal Louie (Vince Barnett) are the only ones who are suspicious. "You're carrying a torch for that guy like the Statue of Liberty"!!! "Goldilocks" does some investigating on her own and finds out that Susan never worked for the Mercury as she claimed she did!!!Ann Gillis, looking just the same as in her Becky Thatcher days - only with an upswept hairdo, plays the petulant Susan petulantly. Obviously, Becky Thatcher was the one great role she had in her. The film could have done with a lot more of the beautiful and elegant Hilary Brooke, who just didn't have enough to do.Recommended.

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Hitchcoc
1947/12/18

A typical reporter crime movie. As usual, there is a crack female reporter and her sidekick, the guy she loves, who's having to go it alone. Enter a little 21 year old femme fatale who plays the innocent and disrupts things. She is trouble from the start, but the blinders are on and she manages to work things up. She has connections to a gang that runs a gambling palace in Big Town. Anyway, this is pretty much what you would expect. There are misleading clues, bad judgments, sloppy reporting, just plain carelessness. It's interesting how these guys get themselves into life and death situations and don't bother to have any backup. Suffice it to say, even though the big lug has a fixation on this little woman, it's the rock solid older woman who pulls him back to his senses. Unfortunately, he ends up in the hospital in the process. A decent film, but no new territory.

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rsoonsa
1947/12/19

"Big Town", a shallowly disguised New York City, is of importance in a number of modes for popular United States culture, initially being a radio programme from 1937 until 1962, then on to television episodes, 1952/1956, and eventually as a comic book series, 1956/1958, with the protagonist in each manifestation being Steve Wilson, originally a reporter working for the Big Town Illustrated Press, later becoming its editor-in-chief, and played in this, the third of four films based upon the radio show, by Philip Reed who is featured in all of the four. In the production here, Wilson's almost girl friend and ace crime reporter Lorelei Kilbourne (Hillary Brooke), after her first novel has been accepted for publication, gives him two weeks notice of her resignation from her newspaper position but, to her chagrin, she is almost immediately replaced by the Illustrated Press owner's niece Susan (Anne Gillis), who by appearances also wedges herself into Steve's affections, although in reality he is using her to discover information of crooked Big Town activity involving an illegal gambling ring that preys upon college students. Susan is possibly not what she appears to be, and while Steve explores the girl's connection with local gambling kingpin Chuck LaRue (Richard Travis), owner of the Winners' Club, a night spot for gambling that is near to the campus where Susan attends, Lorelei also investigates her new rival's activities, with her efforts yielding more than she has expected, as all three of them may be in serious peril from the Forces of Evil. This is better than a routine "B" programmer, as it provides some incisive and hard bitten dialogue, a clever subtext based upon poker playing, and a generally edgy quality pervading the characterizations that lifts the work above the norm and, in spite of budget restrictions that rule out retakes, and a necessity for filling demands of its melodrama genre, there is plenty of "business" for a viewer to enjoy. Reed and Brooke make an elegant and worldly pair, veteran character players William Haade and Joe Sawyer perform as LaRue henchmen, and Vince Barnett has a substantial part in this Pine/Thomas production with producer William Thomas also directing and capably utilizing a crisply composed Whitman Chambers script in an always interesting, skillfully edited, briskly paced and well-cast film that additionally includes an effective original score by Darrell Calker, Gotham flavoured, of course, although the extensive location shooting is along Normandie Avenue on the east side of Hollywood.

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