Lucky Devils
Cast & Crew
Lew Landers
Richard Arlen
Andy Devine
Dorothy Lovett
Janet Shaw
Jack Arnold
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
As newsreel reporters Dick McManus and Andy Tompkins photograph stories featuring daredevil feats, two foreign saboteurs, R. W. Ritter and Berko, plot to destroy the Phillips Dam with the help of the reporters' footage. Back at the Mercury News Reel Company offices, Dick and Andy are informed by their editor, K. W. Momsen, that they may be held responsible if anything does happen to the dam. Norma Bishop, a teletypist for Consolidated News Service and Dick's sometime girl friend, is upset that Dick has once again used her inside information to photograph the dam, and worries that she may lose her job. Dick and Andy are then sent to photograph the maiden flight of a new robotic airplane, but Dick accidentally sabotages its first voyage when he sneaks aboard the plane and knocks out its radar. After being bailed out of jail, Dick and Andy are told that their recently awarded $1,000 bonus is going toward the plane's repair. At Norma's office, Dick learns that the Duke and Duchess of Vere are arriving incognito by boat. Dick tricks Norma into leaving her desk, then sends out a fake news item about quintuplet colts being born at a nearby farm. As the other newsreel reporters cover the fake story, Dick and Andy cover the royal couple's arrival alone. At the pier, Dick and Andy foil an assassination attempt on the couple and become heroes. While they enjoy their success, Norma is fired. Hoping to get even, Norma sends Dick and Andy out on a fake story of her own, but as luck would have it, they make news when they rescue pilot Gordon Douglas after his plane crashes during an around-the-world flight. Despite her deceit, Dick arranges a new job for Norma as a radio announcer. Back at the Mercury offices, Ritter and Berko offer to buy the Phillips Dam footage, but are turned down. After photographing the murder of another newsreel reporter at a mining disaster, Dick and Andy are almost killed themselves by Ritter and Berko when the spies steal the dam footage. Learning that F.B.I. agent Chandler is investigating a sabotage attempt on the dam, Dick calls on Norma, who fakes a radio broadcast that the dam has already been blown up. Dick rushes to the dam, while Andy goes to a museum to photograph its model. Having been told that no photos are allowed, Andy instead steals the model by pretending to be a repairman. As Dick learns that the dam is still intact, Andy accidentally blows up the model while photographing it. That footage is then mistakenly sent to the theaters as "exclusive" footage of the real dam's sabotage. Now a laughing stock, Dick returns to the radio station, claiming to have footage of the real saboteurs planting explosives at the dam. Bradford, Dick's newsreel rival, hires private detective Aloysius K. Grimshaw to follow Dick on his next story. After driving to Andy's farm, Dick realizes he is being followed, and he and Andy scare off Grimshaw by projecting footage of man-eating lions. Meanwhile, Ritter and Berko, pretending to be F.B.I. agents, visit Norma at the radio station to learn Dick and Andy's whereabouts. Norma tells them about the farm, and they insist she take them there. Back at the Mercury offices, Momsen is being bombarded with returned newsreels. Both Chandler and Gwendy Wimple, Andy's scatterbrained girl friend, seek Andy: he for the theft of the museum model, she for breach of promise. After Bradford and Grimshaw then arrive, telling all about the lions at the farm, the entire group heads for the farm. Meanwhile, Norma and the two spies arrive at the farm, only to learn from Dick that there is no real sabotage footage. Inside the barn, a fight breaks out, and Andy attacks the spies using model airplanes launched from the hay-loft. As the spies are defeated, Chandler and the group arrive, and Ritter and Berko are soon arrested. Later at the newsreel offices, Norma arrives, having been fired from her broadcasting job. As Andy and Gwendy look on, Dick offers to take Norma "off the air for life" with a marriage proposal.
Director
Lew Landers
Cast
Richard Arlen
Andy Devine
Dorothy Lovett
Janet Shaw
Jack Arnold
Gus Schilling
Ralf Harolde
Dick Terry
Tim Ryan
James Morton
Gladys Blake
William Forrest
Robert Winkler
Edwin Stanley
Walter Soderling
Mildred Shay
Dora Clemant
Frank Mitchell
Hugh Huntley
Eddie Bruce
Kathryn Sheldon
Arthur O'connell
Dick Wessel
Lew Kelly
Frank Brownlee
Charles B. Smith
Jack Smith
J. Paul Jones
David Oliver
Victor Zimmerman
Roger Haliday
Guy Kingsford
Ed Peil Sr.
Crew
Bernard B. Brown
Hal Bumbaugh
Ed Curtiss
Ralph M. Delacy
Fred Frank
R. A. Gausman
Alex Gottlieb
Jack Otterson
Ben Pivar
Charles Previn
Sam Robins
H. J. Salter
Charles Van Enger
Vera West
Maurice Wright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were We Cover the World and Flying News.
