King of the Newsboys (1938)

35% User Rating

1h 5min

"MEN IN THE MAKING But what kind of men grow out of the squalor of the tenements...from the sordid back alleys of the slums?"

A poor young man's girlfriend leaves him for a gangster, who has the money and power she wants and the young man doesn't have. Determined to show her that he can be a success--and how much of a mistake she made by leaving him--he starts up a newspaper distribution business that is soon the biggest in the city, but things don't turn out exactly the way he wanted them to.

Bernard VorhausDirector

Cast

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Lew Ayres

Jerry Flynn

Helen Mack

Mary Ellen Stephens

Alison Skipworth

Nora

Victor Varconi

Wire Arno

Sheila Bromley

Connie Madison

Alice White

Dolly

Horace McMahon

Lockjaw

William Benedict

Squimpy

Ray Cooke

Pussy

Jack Pennick

Lefty

Mary Kornman

Peggy

Gloria Rich

Maizie

Oscar O'Shea

Mr. Stephens

Marjorie Main

Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)

Byron Foulger

Gazette Owner (uncredited)

Howard Hickman

Judge (uncredited)

Reviews (1)

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CinemaSerf

Rating 60%

June 20, 2022

There's actually quite a decent degree of chemistry between Lew Ayres ("Jerry") and Helen Mack ("Marry Ellen") in this otherwise unremarkable crime melodrama the sees her leave him for the tantalising life of gangster's moll. Can he win her back? Snag is, it's a bit all over the place - part thriller, part gangster film and part comedy - and the ingredients don't mix particularly effectively. Maybe had Richard Vorhaus just focussed his attention/intention a little bit more, this could have been quite a gripping little B-feature, but as it is, it's a slowly paced, limited action effort that falls between too many stools en route to an ending that is never in doubt. British theatrical star Alison Skipworth ("Nora") has something of the silent film star about her, which is nice to watch but otherwise this is a film to pass an hour then completely forget...