Is My Face Red? (1932) Reviews

Ricardo Cortez plays a newspaper gossip columnist based on real-life journalist Walter Winchell (the film's title was in fact a Winchell catchphrase). Merrily dishing up innuendoes and destroying reputations, Cortez enjoys hobnobbing with the rich and powerful, including several disreputable citizens who back up their authority with bullets. He makes the error of announcing a gangland murder before the police have found the body, and in so doing is nearly rubbed out by the killers. An unregenerate louse for most of the film, Cortez finally mends his ways out of love for beautiful Helen Twelvetrees. Is My Face Red? is based on a play by Ben Markson and Allen Rivkin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi