After a socially conscience reporter adopts a slum orphan after she causes his brother's gang to go to prison.
Acting
Joan Blondell's motor-mouth sass opposite Pat O'Brien's gruff charm.
Direction
James Flood crams a mini-epic into 71 minutes without breath.
Writing
Snappy dialogue that walks the pre-Code tightrope.
Director
James Flood
Pat O'Brien
Thomas "Breezy" Elliott
Joan Blondell
Jane Morgan
Bobby Jordan
Mickey Fallon
Alan Baxter
Joe Fallon
William B. Davidson
Scotty
Morgan Conway
Lou Baronette
Clay Clement
Jaeggers
Selmer Jackson
Detective Mendall
Addison Richards
Brand
Pierre Watkin
Barton
Joe King
Brown
Douglas Wood
J. W.
Armand Kaliz
Chatteau
Moroni Olsen
Juvenal Court Judge
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was one of five films Pat O'Brien and Joan Blondell made together in 1939 alone—Warner Bros. knew a golden pairing when they saw one.
Released just as the Hays Code tightened its grip, the film's juvenile delinquency depiction became increasingly sanitized in later 1940s cinema. The slum realism here is practically extinct by 1942.
US
