There was a time when the movies once produced a good newspaper editor for a feature picture. That long since departed day occurred when Adolphe Menjou played the part of Managing Editor in "The Front Page," and did an unexpectedly fine job. But that was only once, and the movies forget easily. Today they have put their man of all work, Clark Gable, into the role of supposedly hard-boiled city editor. The movies have always tried hard to make him a Jack-of-all-Trades and have succeeded, as is inevitable, in making him master of none. Clark may be a good, or relatively so, man about town, but as a city editor he is miscast to say the least. The days of newspaper publishers offices which look like J.P. Morgan's private sanctum are yet to exist, as is the day when a city editor has a trick dictaphone loudspeaker to call his men to him.

In all this grandiloquent setting Clark Gable acts about as much like a newspaper man as a caricaturist would of a movie version of one. In addition I should like to ask the few readers who have not yet tired of this review how, many of them have ever seen a city editor at a Broadway first night in a tailcoat, or, later another evening, at the opening of a most ultra night club on New York's riverfront. No, it all seemed a bit too movieish for a news-man's life. (The rest of you can stop now if you want to; this is going on for some time.)

But if you can put yourself into this realm of fantasy the chances are you'll come away with a relatively satisfied feeling about the whole thing. It's sort of nice to reminisce about it all as you're leaving the lobby. But don't attempt going over it in detail.

The plot briefly concerns the newspaper career of a divorce-murder mixup in which Miss Bennett and some socialite friends of hers are involved. She is working for Mr. Gable's paper and is alternately hired and fired as his moods dictate. Finally he himself is fired for breaking a somewhat slandercus story about his girl reporter's society companions. Doing a bit of free lance journalistic detective work with the help of Stuart Erwin, he finally wrings a confession from a scoundrel of society and then completes the job by marrying Miss Bennett at four in the morning. All very nice, if it weren't followed quite so soon by Arthur Martel at the organ.