Hollywood Exposes A New Racket

Radio Record, 15 July 1938, Page 28

Hollywood Exposes A New Racket

. f"Tip-Of Girls.’ -. "Paramount Directed by Louis King. With Lloyd Nolan, Mary Carlisle, J. Carroll Virst release: Wellington, July 15.)

NE imagines that whenever the average producer is at a loss to-find a suitable subject for a film, story, he turns tovhis assembled .yes-men and 6ays, "Boys, iet's. expose another racket." And thé boys, if they, are well-train-ed, will chorus, "O.K., boss, let’s 1" Yet, if the racketeers never let Hollywood down, Hollywood in ‘urn nearly always does full justice to the rackets. Latest large-scale scheme for breaking the*American law to be exposed is highway robbery, differing onty from the brand practised aforetime by Dick Tur: -pin, Claude Duval and others.of their kidney in -the greater degree of organisation, the fact that the modern highwaymen = are ‘considerably © -Jess polite in their methods, and in’ the fact that they introduce a system of decoy ducks. . "The Switt Attack TPHESE, ducks are girls, who. get themselves picked up by ~ lorrydrivers.and then. (via telephone) tip off the gangster: chiefs-as to the load ;and destination. ofthe lorries-and then all is-reads for the swift attack ‘in- some lonely road, Next morning,some metchant prince ‘bewatls the "loss of a eargo of grand pianos, washing machines, furs, plonghs or cigarettes. For the highway pirates are nothing if nor ‘atholic in, their tastes, Such exploits form the basis for raramount's."Tip Off, Girls." an entertaining melodrama «of .the -"actiou" yariet», ‘The-story is told. with exciting "pace and cumulative suspense to a background necompaniment of ;submachine guns. . -"Tip- Off Girls" is something | more, however, than just. sound and fury. There is ‘also some ver y competent et ‘ing, ‘ "Gririning Chipmunk" ° So IREEN gangsters in general are. entertaining, if unethical, creatures; and one of the choicest. I have met in a long association, with crime nictn, as is ,J..Carroll Naish-oily and sinister but remarkably humorous in, his ‘portrayal of the Italo-American ‘chief of the rackefeers who operates behind a mask of reputable big: business, "He comes. off best in all except his ‘tussles with ‘the. English langnage and G-Man Lloyd Nolan... .. on It’s rather to see. ex+g Nolan on the right ‘side of the lay for once, but he’s none the worse for his change of heart. Somehody in this film calls hima "grinning chipmunk," which ‘is as good a description as any for this distinctive and thoronghly -eapahble young actor; A -pieture worth seeing "if: ‘yon like the-type, ae