Another Glenda Farrell movie, this one is volume 8 of the Forbidden Hollywood series, one of four or five movies included in the collection. They’re all supposed to be movies that were released before the Hays code and were “forbidden” to be shown, but in reality most of the films in this collection are just movies that happened to come out before some arbitrary time frame. I’m told that the Hays code wasn’t even seriously considered until 1934, which is the same year that “Hi, Hellie” came out, and there’s nothing in the film that suggests to me that it would have had much problem with the code anyways, aside from a bit of drinking and a very drunk guy that gets pretty roughed up.
I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear this is a missing man mystery movie with a missing banker with $500,000 in missing money, who’s assumed to have absconded with the cash, but in reality, he’s dead and there’s criminal shenanigans afoot. Glenda Farrell is here, but she’s just a supporting role, not the main actor. That honor goes to Paul Muni, who’s done a previous film with Farrell, and does a commendable job as a man that makes one bad call and is severely punished for it, but figures out how to deal with the set back and insults hurled his way. It’s a good movie and if you’re into fast talking newspaper mysteries, this is a great one to check out.
