While New York Sleeps (1938)

This was the second of the Roving Reporters movies, starring Michael Whalen, Chick Chandler and Jean Rogers. Bond messengers have been being attacked. An ambulance comes in with a casualty, with the two reporters tucked inside. Inspector Cliff Clark does not like them, and says they will slip up some day. Whalen is preparing to take his vacation to write a play. Minor Watson, his city editor, keeps trying to get him to cover the big story, but he refuses. However, the play is not going well, and finally Minor calls with a new development, and it is more temptation than Whalen can stand, so back he goes. A friend of his has been killed. Clark says it is suicide, but Whalen thinks it is murder.

Whalen goes to see Harold Huber, who is a night club owner and and incorrigible and irritating practical joker. Huber's girlfriend is Joan Woodbury. William Demarest is the bartender. Marc Lawrence is his strong-arm man. Huber's lead dancer is Rogers, and Woodbury is jealous of her. When Watson finds out how flimsy is the evidence Whalen has, he is more determined than ever to prove the murder.
(There is a hilarious scene where Eddie "Rochester" Anderson is being photographed as a witness.) The murdered man made a substantial payment on an annuity shortly before he died, which is inconsistent with suicide. Watson figures out that Whalen staged the annuity payment out of his expense account. Whalen is planning to marry Rogers, and needs to solve the crime to get a raise.

That day, however, Rogers' old boyfriend Robert Kellard shows up in order to make up from their last fight. She writes a note to Whalen to break off their relationship. Sidney Blackmer, a lawyer, comes into the club. Kellard orders a Johnstown Jolt. Whalen alters the note so that it looks like Rogers is really breaking up with Kellard, and sends it to him. Kellard sends an angry not to Rogers and storms out of the club. Rogers discovers what Whalen has done and calls Kellard's hotel from Huber's office to ask him to call he before he leaves. Huber comes up with the idea of staging a murder of him by her in order to fool Whalen. He has balloons dropped on the dance floor to cover up the shot. Whalen comes in and takes the bait. He hustles Rogers out of the club in order to shield her. He stops the cab to call in the story to his paper. Rogers finally breaks and starts laughing in the cab. They return to the club, where an angry Clark has just read the supposedly erroneous headline. However, it turns out that Huber is really dead (at which point the audience sighs with relief to be rid of his pointless jokes).

Kellard comes into the club to see Rogers and is arrested for his trouble. Whalen sees a picture that Chandler took of Huber after the shooting, which was not in the same position in which he saw it. Blackmer and Lawrence call on Woodbury to get her to tell where the stolen bonds are. They send Demarest to get the bonds from her apartment. Whalen walks in on Demarest while he is getting them, followed by the police sergeant who was tailing him. They put the officer into a trick collapsing chair and get away. Whalen maks Demarest take the bonds to the trio waiting for them. Whalen and Chandler come in and take their picture holding the bonds. Lawrence admits to the murders, and Woodbury shoots him. Rogers and Kellard return to each other's embrace and ride into the sunset, while Clark and the sergeant enjoy the joke at Whalen's expense.




Watson