CinemaSerf
5.0/10Jun 01, 2023
Well, at least it's a "Reliable" picture! It's also a pretty rough and ready crime caper that sees enthusiastic journalist "Dick" (Richard Talmadge) investigate the probity of the chairman of the newly formed "City Reform League" after a night of crooked chaos leaves quite a few people in custody and quite a few prominent citizens under suspicion. "Renfrew" (Frank Hall Crane) is the man, ostensibly an upstanding gentleman, whom we soon realise is very much in the pocket of "Franklin" (Richard Cramer). Can "Dick" and his charming fiancé "May" (Luana Walters) save the day? To be fair, it's quite a pacy affair with lots of (overly) choreographed chases and fist-fights before a really messy and frank quite annoying denouement. Indeed, I found the leading man to be a bit of a pain right from the get-go! It's very dialogue heavy and such attempts at humour as there are probably fell flat in 1936 let alone nowadays. It's a cinema curio at best, sorry.
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