Killing a man

J. Spencer Halford ( Theodore von Eltz ), head of the New York investment company Halford and Mender, conducts dubious financial transactions, in particular, through personal charm, convinces the ladies to invest large amounts of money in their projects, after which he announces their failure. His younger partner, Henry Mender ( Harvey Stevens ), without the consent of the boss, invested 20 thousand dollars in securities. Seeing this as an attempt to appropriate the company’s money, Halford demands that they be returned, otherwise threatening Mender with prison. Soon, Mendera is summoned to a shooting gallery located directly opposite the entrance to the business center, where the company’s office is located. However, the shooting range manager tells Mender that no one asked him. That evening, one of Halford's clients rushes off the ferry into the river and drowns. After work, Halford sits in the back seat of his open limousine with a driver and heads home. At the chic skyscraper where the banker lives, the driver stops, discovering Halford with a shot through his head. The report of the murder of Halford goes to the police department, where detectives put forward the version that one of the many women of the businessman could become the cause of the murder. The editor of the major Daily Star newspaper, Robins ( Robert Barrath ), who is responsible for preparing the city news, urgently needs to find his lead crime journalist Steve Gray ( Spencer Tracy ), who was nicknamed the murder specialist. Steve stopped appearing in the editorial office a few days ago, presumably due to another binge. With great difficulty, with the help of the police, he is found sleeping on one of the street carousels. Robins instructs Steve to investigate the Halford murder. In the meantime, a crowd of deceived investors are gathering in front of the doors of the Halford and Mender office to return their money. Having gone to the company’s office, Steve overhears Mender’s telephone conversation with a certain Burns, during which Mender promises to return 300 thousand dollars. When Gray accuses Mender that their office robbed people, he replies that these people invested their money and lost it for completely legitimate reasons. Then, in Halford’s office, Steve finds out from the accountant that Halford transferred significant amounts of client money to his personal accounts. Interrogation in the office shows that no one heard the shot that killed Halford. Steve suggests that the shots might not have been heard because it came from a shooting range. After establishing the caliber of the bullet, it turns out that it corresponds to the weapon that is used in the dash. Halford's secretary tells the police that at the alleged moment of the murder, Mender was just going out. The investigative experiment in the shooting gallery, which Steve arranges for police captain Cole ( Lionel Etuille ), shows how it was possible to shoot Halford from a shooting gallery in such a way that the owner of the shooting gallery did not even notice this. Suspicion of the murder falls on Mendera, but the police cannot establish the motive for the murder. In the evening, Steve goes with his father, “Papa” Gray (William Collier Sr.) to a restaurant, where it turns out that Gray Sr., who works as a printer at the Daily Star, put all his savings into the Halford fund and burned out. In addition, Dorothy's wife left Steve some time ago, who committed suicide two days ago by jumping from a ferry. Detectives summon Mender for questioning, who cannot explain what he was doing in the shooting gallery at the time of the murder. In addition, Steve finds out that in the event of the death of a partner, Mender will receive insurance in the amount of 200 thousand dollars, which the police consider to be a good enough reason for the murder. The owner of the shooting gallery identifies Mender as the person who was on the shooting gallery at the time of the murder, after which Cole arrests him.

In court, the testimony of a ballistics expert, the owner of the shooting gallery and an insurance company representative convincingly confirms the version that it was Mender who killed his partner. When Mary Shannon ( Virginia Bruce ), Steve’s girlfriend, who writes a column of romantic tips for readers in the newspaper, doubts Mender’s guilt, Steve reminds her that Mender and Halfern ruined 7,000 people, including his father. In his testimony, Steve says that he heard a conversation with Mender a certain Burns, where he said that he had money to pay. After the court found Mender guilty and sentenced to death by electric chair, the editor writes Steve a bonus and gives two weeks of vacation. Steve immediately goes to the bar, where he gets drunk alone. Mary, who is in love with Steve, worries that he will finally sniff. She finds him, persuading him to leave the city to relax and work on a book. Some time later, editor Robins negotiates with the head of the Sing Sing prison , where Mender is held on death row, to conduct an interview with the prisoner a few hours before his execution. Robins wants to entrust this work to Steve, who has not been in the editorial office for three months. Robins asks Mary to urgently find Steve and invite him to work. Mary refuses to tell where Steve is, but her short-listed newspaper nicknamed “Shorty” ( James Stuart ) gets to Steve's country hideout in the trunk of Mary’s car, where he persuades him to interview Mender on death row. Steve does not pay attention to Mary’s request not to get involved in this business, and goes to Sing Sing to talk with Mender. In prison, Mender, who has lost his former gloss, begs Steve to save him and swears that he did not kill anyone. However, Steve claims that he actually destroyed the lives of many people, including his elderly father who went bankrupt, and his wife committed suicide. When Mender claims that he is ready to go to jail for misappropriation of other people's money and pay the victims, but asks to save his life, since he did not kill anyone, Steve unexpectedly calmly answers “I know”. Steve returns to the editorial office, where he writes the article, but then breaks it, leaves the editorial office, announcing his dismissal, and starts drinking again. When Robins demands that he finish the job, Steve promises him to make material that will “glorify the newspaper.” Locked in his office, he dictates the story to the recorder, ending it with the words that he, hiding in a dash, shot Halford. He gives Mary a decrypted cylinder that hears with horror the end of the story. A sobbing Mary refuses to print material and tries to destroy the cylinder. However, Steve tells her that she is a good girl, and it is unfortunate that he did not meet her before, and then leaves for the police, saying that now they will not see each other for a long time. In Cole’s office, Steve confesses to the captain that it was he who shot Halford. He tells how, five years ago, Halford came out on his wife, charmed her and persuaded her to invest in one of his projects. Soon, she left Steve and gave all her money to Halford. After Halford broke up with her, Dorothy committed suicide, and this was the last straw for Steve, who forced him to go on to kill Halford. Then Steve tells how he adjusted the call of Mender to the shooting gallery to substitute him, how he stole a gun from the shooting gallery, from which he made a deadly shot. Mary and Papa Gray come to the police, who tells his son that he “was mistaken, but now he is corrected”. In parting, Mary kisses Steve and promises to wait, while Cole hopes that the jury will take into account the special circumstances of this case.

Before the release of the film for some time was held under the name "Dishonest Alibi" ^[1] .

An article in the Hollywood Reporter noted that Hayes 's office initially rejected the story of the film, as it dealt with the theme of revenge killing ^[1] .

This was the first film by director and screenwriter Tim Wellan for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio ^[1] . Subsequently, he directed such diverse films as the criminal drama “The lawsuit for defamation” (1937), the British comedies “London Sidewalks” (1938) and “The Divorce of Lady X ” (1938), the family tale “ Baghdad Thief ” (1940) and the film noir The Nightmare (1942) ^[2] .

It was the first Tracy movie on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to continue to work on this studio for the next 20 years. In addition, the film was a movie debut for James Stewart , who played an aspiring reporter with the ironic name Shorty ^{[3] [1] [2] [4]} .

A year earlier, Tracy had already appeared in MGM's comedy titled “ Shamming ” (1934) when he was leased from Twentieth Century Fox . MGM general producer Irving Thalberg liked Tracy's play in this film, and he signed a permanent contract with the 35-year-old actor. Tracy's first film on MGM was supposed to be the crime drama " Rabble " (1936), along with Gene Harlow . But the picture was temporarily postponed, and then the studio immediately put Tracy on this modest film of category B , which was shot in three weeks. As movie historian Jeremy Arnold noted, “the film was a strong start for Tracy at MGM - and he will remain in the studio for 20 years” ^[4] .

As for Stuart, according to Arnold, when the actor arrived from New York on the set of MGM , this film was already in production, although the role of an aspiring reporter named Shorty was still free. Given that Stewart was 191 cm tall, the role was obviously given to him as a joke. Producer Harry Rupf initially rejected this idea (he wanted to take on the role of a dwarf), but, as Arnold notes, “ultimately, studio casting director Bill Grady helped Ruff see the humor of this situation. And so Stuart made his debut as a lanky, enthusiastic news hunter with the wrong nickname. ” Stuart was shocked when he first saw himself on the screen in this film, saying: “There were only arms and legs. I didn’t seem to know what to do with them. ” Stuart later recalled: “I signed a contract with MGM without even looking at it — it was impossible to read. The contract was designed for three months. I later found out that it was one of those contracts with an option for the next three months and so on. In other words, they got you for life. The war interrupted my contract. It's not that I wanted to leave. I enjoyed it a lot. ” Arnold writes that, in fact, the maximum duration of a Stuart contract was seven years ^[4] .

As Arnold further points out, "a lifelong friendship was made on the set between Stuart and Tracy." As Tracy later recalled, he gave Stuart his first acting advice: “I told him to forget about the camera. That was all he needed. In the first scene, he showed that he already has everything he needs. " It will be another three months before Stuart gets his next role in the film at MGM . To take something with him, the studio sent him to the gym. At the same time, Stuart began to take piloting lessons and learned how to fly a plane himself. Later, he independently flew home to Pennsylvania , using railways for navigation ^[4] . Despite mutual sympathy, the next time Tracy and Stuart played together only 14 years later in the adventure thriller “ Malaya ” (1949) ^[5] .

The film has achieved notable commercial success at the box office. However, after the release of the screens, the New York Times columnist Frank S. Nugent did not appreciate the picture, attributing it to the level of "between just decent and mediocre." According to Nugent, “one of the major shortcomings of this detective melodrama” is that it “delays its shock moment too long.” As a result, the dramatic aggravation towards the end of the film is in sharp disagreement with “the slowness and staticness of the first three quarters of the film ... And although the denouement is striking and quite justified, it cannot compensate for the slowness of the picture mentioned above.” Concerning the acting, the critic notes that “ Tracy , always an interesting actor, could be seen in more winning roles, and the rest of the performers are so few that their work does not deserve comment” ^[6] .

Modern film historians evaluate the picture more positively. In particular, Dennis Schwartz called her “a lively crime drama of category B”, which “although rather weak in terms of credibility, is fascinating.” In addition, it gives “an interesting picture of the past era, when the fourth power took itself so seriously, and when there were many profitable newspapers fighting for circulation” ^[2] . Jeremy Arnold also called the film “a lively Category B film,” which is remembered today primarily because it is Tracey’s first film under his contract with MGM and James Stuart’s film debut. He further writes that after the release of the film “At least one critic from The New York Herald Tribune drew attention to Stuart’s talent and remembered his theatrical works,” writing: “This admirable theatrical young man James Stewart, who was so good at the play “Yellow Fever” is wasted here in an episodic role, with which he copes with his charming mastery ” ^[4] .

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