You Can't Escape Forever
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Jo Graham
George Brent
Brenda Marshall
Gene Lockhart
Roscoe Karns
Edward Ciannelli
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When reporter Laurie Abbott faints during an execution and phones in an invented story, she is assigned to write the newspaper's "advice to the lovelorn" column as punishment. When she objects, editor Steve Mitchell suggests that she quit and marry him instead. Laurie's stint as a columnist does not last long, however, as she is soon replaced by Mitch when he fails in his attempt to link racketeer Boss Greer with the suspicious death of Matthew Crowder. Goaded by Laurie, Mitch turns the column into the most popular part of the paper. One day, avid reader Kirsty Lundstrom demands to speak in person to the column's writer. Laurie, pretending to be the writer, learns that Kirsty met a man at the Lonesome Club, who later got into trouble with some "big shots" and died. Mitch remembers that Crowder also met his wife at the Lonesome Club, and he and Laurie, together with photographer "Mac" McTurk, decide to investigate. The three arrive at the club in time to see a wedding. Afterward, Mitch obtains a book containing the names of all the people married at the club from the judge who performed the ceremony, and Laurie observes some of Greer's men loading a truck with tires. When Carl Robelink, the owner of the club and Greer's brother-in-law, becomes suspicious, Mitch and Mac start a fight, and the three escape in the confusion. Later, Laurie learns that Robelink has a manuscript written by Crowder, which apparently implicates Greer in graft. At Greer's club, Mitch overhears Robelink and Greer quarrel, and after Greer leaves the room, Mitch offers Robelink protection against Greer if he will reveal where he has hidden Crowder's manuscript. After they learn that the manuscript is in Crowder's coffin, Mitch, Mac and Laurie hurry to the cemetery, followed by Greer and his men. At the cemetery, Mitch finds the manuscript minutes before Greer arrives and escapes with Laurie and Mac. The manuscript provides evidence of Greer's profiteering activities and, as Mitch breaks the story, Greer is arrested by soldiers. A new writer is assigned to the lovelorn column, and Laurie agrees to marry Mitch if she does not have to give up her career. Mitch simply winks in response.
Director
Jo Graham
Cast
George Brent
Brenda Marshall
Gene Lockhart
Roscoe Karns
Edward Ciannelli
Paul Harvey
Edith Barrett
Harry Hayden
Charles Halton
Don Defore
Joseph Downing
George Meeker
Erville Alderson
Mary Field
Bill Edwards
Dick Elliott
Joe Crehan
Dick Wessel
Paul Newlan
Creighton Hale
Cliff Saum
Bill Kennedy
John Maxwell
Pat Mcveigh
Phil Tead
Billy Newell
John Dilson
Anthony Nace
Edward Mcwade
Tom Dugan
Jean Ames
Jimmy O'gatty
Kay Deslys
Gertrude Mack
Marjorie Kane
Peggy Carson
Ernie Alexander
Max Wagner
Florence Dudley
Leo White
Mike Gaddis
Elliott Sullivan
Herberta Williams
Jim Farley
Charles Sullivan
Harry Tenbrook
Kenneth Harlan
Milt Kibbee
Frank Ferguson
Charles Mcavoy
Jack Carr
Frank Richards
Peggy Diggins
Eddie Kane
Bud Jamison
Juanita Stark
Kathryn Keyes
Billy Wayne
Fred Kelsey
Sam Mcdaniel
Olin Howlin
Lee "lasses" White
Harvey Parry
Bill Hopper
Eddie Hart
Harry Strang
Charles Regan
Frank Mills
Vera Lewis
Lorna Dunn
Betty Mcmann
Merrilee Lannon
Crew
Milo Anderson
Roy Chanslor
Hector Chevigny
Adolph Deutsch
Stanley Fleischer
Leo F. Forbstein
Frank Fox
Tony Gaudio
James Leicester
Fred Niblo Jr.
Dolph Thomas
Walter F. Tilford
James Van Trees
David Weisbart
Perc Westmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was You Can't Escape Romance. According to a June 10, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item, director of photography James Van Trees substituted for Tony Gaudio while the latter was sick with the flu. According to an undated press release included in the file on the film at the AMPAS Library, Jane Wyman was to star with George Brent. Roy Chanslor's story was the basis of two earlier Warner Bros. films: the 1934 Hi Nellie!, starring Paul Muni and directed by Mervyn Le Roy, and the 1937 Love Is on the Air, starring Ronald Reagan and directed by Nick Grinde (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.1895 and F3.2605). In 1949, Warner Bros. again filmed the story as The House Across the Street.
