Love is a Racket

New York Globe Columnist Jimmy Russell (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) prowls his Broadway beat, digging up the racy gossip his readers devour with their morning toast and cup of joe. It's a glamorous life - until Jimmy's attempt to help his actress girlfriend (Francis Dee) out of a jam ends with him shoving a dead mobster over the balcony of a Manhattan penthouse. Director William A Wellman's illustrious filmography includes classic tales of crime (The Public Enemy) and tabloid journalism (Nothing Sacred, Roxie Hart). He combines the two genres in this snappy Pre-Code comedy-melodrama that Variety called "shrewdly wrought. [Fairbanks] plays the love game with his eyes and his heart both open, and battles or takes it with agreeable grace and jauntiness." Lee Tracy, Broadway's original Hildy Johnson in The Front Page, revisits the news game as Jimmy's reporter pal. And Ann Dvorak costars as a sardonic cutie with a secret crush on Jimmy.

• comedy
• crime
• drama