The Final Edition [1932] [DVD]

A tough, female reporter tries to get a story on the head of a crime syndicate and when the new police commissioner is murdered, she tries to get the evidence she needs for her story by getting in with the mobsters right-hand man.

Top review: New York newspaper editor Pat O'Brien is in love with one of his best reporters, Mae Clarke, but fires her when she turns down his marriage proposal. She scoops a headline (information on the murder of a new police chief who won't give in to threats by local gangsters) so he is forced to re-hire her. She goes to Atlantic City to get the goods on gangster Bradley Page, and O'Brien uses Page's jealous moll (Mary Doran) to bring the criminal ring down. Meanwhile, a tired photographer James Donlan desperately seeks time off, not having been "out of his clothes in three nights". This is pre-code gangster film at its best, filled with comic dialogue that makes this film move at lightning speed.

After his success in "The Front Page", Pat O'Brien became typecast in these types of parts, and does them excellently. Mae Clarke, best known as the grapefruit gal in "The Public Enemy", is a spunky leading lady, and far here from the fragile heroines she played in the original "Waterloo Bridge" and "Frankenstein". It's a shame that she never made it into the "A" league of 30's stars because she grabs the material here like a football and runs with it off the field. Bradley Page, always typecast as a villain because of his deep voice, gruff manner and trim mustache, adds more dimension to the part here, especially in the romantic scenes with Clarke in Atlantic City. The audience may be on to Clarke's deception, but there lies a bit of sympathy for him because they know he is being duped.

For a lower ranked studio of 1932, Columbia made some smart pictures that stand up with those gritty films made by the A-list Warner Brothers the same year. They are sometimes more fun to watch than the big-budget and glamorous MGM and Paramount films with their crisp dialogue, depression era atmosphere and wonderful character players. While the film is quite predictable, it is filled with enough surprises to make it better than the average gangster film. It's also nice to see O'Brien being challenged by a female character, the best newspaper woman on screen until Rosalind Russell's Hildy of "His Girl Friday" 8 years later. ~ imdb