Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

bnwfilmbuff Phillip Reed, newspaper editor, gets himself sweet-talked into hiring the owner's niece, Ann Gillis, who supposedly is attending college and looking for a reporters job. She's not and instead dupes him into looking into the goings-on at a local gambling house, The Winners Club. Reed calls out one of the parlor's operatives for dealing from the bottom of the deck and is quickly overtaken by the club's thugs and drug into meet the owner of this seedy establishment, Richard Travers. After a beating by Travers' gang, Reed ends up hospitalized and wondering what happened to Gillis. Believing that Gillis has been kidnapped, the paper owner, Charles Arnt, is shaken down by Travers for $50,000. Reed then goes on a crusade to expose the gang and recover the $50,000. Hillary Brooke et al is called in to assist with the effort. The plot becomes obvious although the ending had a nice twist. It's pretty slow going overall with low production values. Just a time waster at best.

Jay Raskin This was the first movie I watched in a DVD collection of 50 "Crime Classics" from Mill Creek that I found in Movie Stop for $6.99. At about 14 cents per movie, I thought it was a pretty good deal. I was glad to see that this was a good transfer and the black and white detail was sharp.This isn't quite film noir, but one can see a film noir influence. There are lots of night shots, characters who have psychological problems and a near femme fatale in Ann Gillis.This is a B movie with "C" sets and a "B" script. It moves well and has some unexpected and unusual twists. There's nothing to knock your socks off, but the dialogue is sharp enough to get you smiling here and there.Hillary Brook is her usual blonde ice self. She has an ephemeral presence, just floating through her scenes delivery her lines well, but without much thought or emotion.The story is gallant and savvy newspaper reporters battling crooks. Watch for a funny inside reference to the classic newspaper play "The Front Page" at the beginning.I understand from the reviews that there were three other Big Town movies. I am looking forward to seeing them, and looking forward to watching the 45 or so more movies in this collection that I haven't seen.

kidboots 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.

rsoonsa "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.