The Daring Young Man
Cast & Crew
William A. Seiter
James Dunn
Mae Clarke
Neil Hamilton
Sidney Toler
Warren Hymer
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Although reporter Don "Mac" McLane fancies himself a woman- hater and constantly warns his colleagues of the dangers of getting "hooked," when he meets rival reporter Martha "Maddy" Allen as they both cover a wedding, he becomes interested enough to get her to invite him to her apartment. When he arrives there, he finds Colonel Baggott, a colossal bore, who threatens to fill their evening with anecdotes about his experiences. After Mac puts a knockout powder in the colonel's tea and the colonel dozes off, Mac proposes to Maddy, who requests an "option" until the next day. To cover the arrival of a duchess and an aviator on a cruise boat, Mac and Maddy take a pilot boat together. When Mac retches along the way, Maddy comforts him and comes to the realization that she will love him no matter what occurs, because she loves him as he is under the present circumstances. They plan to marry the next morning, but Mac's editor Hooley convinces him to pose as a convict in order to uncover corruption at Westgate Jail. Mac gives Hooley a letter explaining the situation to Maddy, but Hooley maliciously destroys it. While Maddy waits at the church, Mac discovers that the jail is filled with convicts who have "pull," and that it has more the atmosphere of a country club than that of a prison. Pete Hogan, an ex-convict, arrives with two satchels of money and offers to split the "take" with Warden Palmer, if the warden will allow him to hide out there for a few months. Pete explains that he was on a tour of the U.S. Treasury, when he got lost and saw a man shoveling money into a furnace; he hit the man over the head with the shovel and took as many large bills as he could carry. Pete meets Mac and brags to him about his good fortune. After Maddy's friends taunt her, she decides to accept the proposal of her former suitor, Gerald Raeburn, and marry him the next day. When Mac hears the announcement of the proposed wedding over the radio, he convinces another prisoner to allow him to leave "on furlough." Meanwhile, Maddy's editor learns that an undercover reporter is in the jail and sends his own reporter to question the warden. Warden Palmer denies the accusation, and then learns that Mac has left. Pete and another convict, Muggs, bring Mac back for the warden before he can reach Maddy. The next morning, Maddy's editor tells her that Mac is working undercover in jail, and she volunteers to bring back an interview. Mac locks her in his cell, so that she will be forced to listen to his explanation. As they reconcile, the warden, who has just learned that the commissioner and the mayor are coming for a surprise inspection, tries to get Pete to take the two satchels of loot away. The satchels burst open, and when the commissioner and mayor arrive, they find the warden and Pete fighting amidst a roomful of currency. The commissioner orders them both locked up and then, to his horror, finds Maddy in Mac's cell. When Maddy is let out, she rushes to phone in her story, but finds that it has already hit the streets. Mac then tells her about the Treasury Department robbery story, but says he has something more important to attend to before he brings in that story. They go to the church to get married, but when they find that the richest girl in the world is inside crying because her fiancé, a prizefighter, has not shown up, they both run to a drugstore and phone in the story. They then apologize and vow never to do it again.
Director
William A. Seiter
Cast
James Dunn
Mae Clarke
Neil Hamilton
Sidney Toler
Warren Hymer
Stanley Fields
Madge Bellamy
Frank Melton
Raymond Hatton
Jack La Rue
Arthur Treacher
Dorothy Christy
Robert Gleckler
William Pawley
James Donlan
Phil Tead
Dewitt Jennings
Del Henderson
Paul Hurst
Jack Richardson
Frank Mayo
George Guhl
Harry Hume
Jack Low
Leo Willis
Stanley Blystone
Blackie Whiteford
Harry Strang
Joe Lefert
Jimmie Dime
Jim Thorpe
Dick Stewart
Jack Perry
Harry Tenbrook
Charles Sullivan
James P. Burtis
Frank S. Hagney
Robert Manning
John Marshall
Louis Natheaux
William Ruhl
Arthur Vinton
Eddie Tamblyn
Edwin Stanley
Harry Seymour
Ray Cooke
Frank Mills
Jack Hatfield
Andy White
Jack Mower
Arthur Stuart Hull
Fredric Santly
Max Wagner
Anders Van Haden
Maurice Black
Frank Hall Crane
Katherine Ryan
Earl M. Pingree
Patsy Lee
Vera Lewis
James Flavin
Monte Vandegrift
Crew
Herbert Asbury
Claude Binyon
Lester Cole
Gordon Cooper
Harvey Gates
Merritt Gerstad
Sam Hellman
Renè Hubert
William Hurlbut
Robert T. Kane
Eric Knight
Arthur Lange
Jack Otterson
Noel Pierce
Don Ryan
Sidney Skolsky
Glenn Tryon
E. C. Ward
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were Safe in Jail, which was the title of the original, unpublished story by Claude Binyon and Sidney Skolsky, and Man Proposes. According to New York Times, the story writers were ex-newspaper men. A number of reviews noted that the film was based somewhat on a recent prison scandal. Box Office stated that it "was probably inspired by the scandalous raids that took place on New York's Welfare Island, where prisoners were found to be having a perfectly swell time during their confinement." According to New York Times articles from January 25, 1934, on the previous day, a raiding party led by Austin H. MacCormick, Commissioner of Correction, uncovered "wholesale scandal and corruption" at the Welfare Island Penitentiary and put Daniel Sheehan, the deputy warden, under "military arrest." Two gangs headed by racketeers were found to be ruling the prison, where narcotics and various weapons were found. The gangs were found to have smuggled narcotics into the prison using homing pigeons to sell to inmates. New York Times commented that for the gangleaders and their henchmen, "the prison seemed to have been run on the lines of a first-class hotel." Variety noted that this film has the "same plot basis" as Warner Bros.'s Front Page Woman, which was also made in 1935 (see below). According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, Joseph Sauers was originally cast in the role of "Muggs," but his contract was cancelled, and he was replaced by William Pawley.
