Is My Face Red? (DVD)

If it's scandalous, sensational and hush-hush, New York columnist William Poster is the guy who lurks inside the speakeasies or slips beyond the backstage doors to find it. But after he breaks a story about an infamous politico's murder, the next time Poster's name appears in print may be in the obituaries. Ricardo Cortez portrays Poster in a snappy pre-Code tale that's one of many films supervised by David O. Selznick at RKO in the early 1930s. "It is a shrewd, witty and scathing portrait, and Mr. Cortez plays the part to the hilt," wrote critic Andre Sennwald in The New York Times. First-billed Helen Twelvetrees plays Poster's forgiving Broadway sweetie. Other notables include future Charlie Chan-series star Sidney Toler as the murderous speakeasy proprietor and Robert Armstrong as a rival columnist. Less than a year later, Armstrong would journey to Skull Island in executive producer Selznick's King Kong.

• classic
• comedy