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HOLLYWOOD TOUGH GUYS AND SASSY DAMES

BACK IN CIRCULATION (1937)

A Warner Brothers Picture. Produced by Jack L. Warner and Hal B. Wallis. Directed by Ray Enright. Screenplay by Adela Rogers St. Johns and Warren Duff. Additional Dialogue by Seton I. Miller. Photography by Arthur L. Todd. Original Music by Bernhard Kaun, Heinz Roemheld and William Grant Still. Edited by Clarence Kolster. Art Direction by Hugh Reticker. Costumes by Howard Shoup. Sound by Charles Lang. Musical Direction by Leo F. Forbstein. 81 min.

Cast: Pat O’Brien (Bill Morgan), Joan Blondell (Timothea Blake), Margaret Lindsay (Arline Wade), John Litel (Dr. Eugene Forde), Eddie Acuff (Murphy), Craig Reynolds (“Snoopy” Davis), George E. Stone (Mac), Walter Byron (Carlton Whitney), Ben Welden (Sam Sherman), Regis Toomey (Buck), Raymond Brown

(Attorney Bottsford), Gordon Hart (Dr. Hanley), Granville Bates (Dr. Horace Evans), Herbert Rawlinson (District Attornet Stephen L. Saunders), Spencer Charters (Sheriff), Jack Bart (Newsboy), Tom Brower (Jury Foreman), Glen Cavender (Plainclothesman at train wreck), Davison Clark (Court Clerk), Robert Darrell (Assistant Dispatcher), Frank Faylen (James Maxwell), Edward Gargan (Policeman at train wreck), Sol Gorss (Reporter in court room), Howard C. Hickman (Judge), Stuart Holmes (Fred), William Hopper (Pete Eddington), Patsy “Babe” Kane (Switchboard Operator), Milton Kibbee (Pink Thomas), Anderson Lawler (Butch Jason), Al Lloyd (News Office Worker), Mira McKinney (First Matron), Jack Mower (Undertaker’s assistant), Frank O’Connor (News Office Worker), Henry Otho (Eddie Nelson), Paul Panzer (Janitor), Bernice Pilot (Dorinda).
A mildly diverting newspaper comedy in which Pat O’ Brien and Joan Blondell were cast together for the second time in a Warner Brothers Picture following their success in the raucous pre-code comedy “I’ve Got Your Number” (1934), BACK IN CIRCULATION marked one of the reasons why Miss Blondell had chosen to leave her studio after seven years. O’Brien, on the other hand, had better luck with Warners, when they cast him in two of his best remembered vehicles the following year opposite his good friend James Cagney. “Boy Meets Girl” and “Angels with Dirty Faces” (both 1938) were a welcome shot in the arm for Pat, who previously had to trudge through dreary vehicles like “The Great O’Malley” (1937), “Submarine D-1” (1938), and “Women Are Like That” (1938). Joan Blondell, on the other hand, reluctantly agreed to another newspaper outing with O’Brien called “Off the Record” (1939).
This was the final straw and it convinced Miss Blondell to leave Warner Brothers and pursue employment at other studios with varying degrees of success. After starring in the excellent third (and last) installment of the famous “Topper” series for Hal Roach in 1941, she was awarded some excellent second leads in director Elia Kazan’s outstanding “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1945) and the film noir classic “Nightmare Alley” (1947). Both Blondell and O’Brien kept busy in pictures right up to the end and it was a genuine pleasure to see these two old pros popping up in some of the biggest moneymakers of the 1970s, albeit in supporting roles.  
BACK IN CIRCULATION uses the tried and true theme of a hard-boiled editor wanting to get the scoop on all of the rival newspapers in the city. He assigns his ace reporter “Timmy” Blake (Blondell) to investigate a supposed murder. Of course, she is in love with her boss and will go to any length to impress him in the hope that he might notice her as more than just another reporter.
This screenplay by the legendary Adela Rogers St. John and Warren Duff had been done many times before, but the two stars make it all seem fresh. Unfortunately, BACK IN CIRCULATION could have been a much better entry in the two star’s filmographies. It just seems to lack pacing although the actors try their best to breathe some life into the rather tepid proceedings as best they can.When one looks back and reassesses the other great newspaper films of the 1930s like “The Front Page” (1931) and its superb remake “His Girl Friday” (1940), we can recall the splendid writing of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, who were once reporters themselves! Other classics in this genre were movies that explored “yellow journalism like “Five Star Final” (1931), in which city editor Edward G. Robinson delves into his “morgue” files and does a follow-up story on a famous murder mystery that had taken place years ago.
The murderess, who has now paid for her crime, is a prominent pillar of society and the ensuing story would ruin her. Of course, the item is printed and the results are disastrous, with suicide and other public scandals proving forthcoming. Another excellent, although more lighthearted, but nonetheless still biting installment is the 1932 “Blessed Event”, in which loud-mouthed Lee Tracy plays an obnoxious Walter Winchell type, who will stop at nothing to “dish out the dirt”, no matter who it ruins. To be fair, BACK IN CIRCULATION, though not a bad film by any means, warrants a fair reevaluation despite some of its shortcomings.

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