Jimmy McDonald
Created by Monte Collins and Julian
I. Peyser
JIMMY McDONALD is a hard-nosed reporter
(is there any other kind in old movies?) for Hollywood Evening
Telegram who, while covering a double homicide, discovers
the potentially career-stopping secret of dashing Vic Morton,
the "sensational new singing star of the silver screen"
in Heartaches (1947, PRC). Complicating things is the fact
that Toni, Jimmy's sweetie, is Vic's hard-working publicist.
Yeah, it sounds pretty corny, but by most accounts Heartaches is a pretty stylish and entertaining whodunit that mixes in musical numbers and a tongue-in-cheek peek at show biz. Even as the bullets fly and the bodies pile up, there are some great shots of old Hollywood and some sharp kicks at "the star-making machinery behind the popular song" that even Joni Mitchell would approve of.
Screenwriter George Bricker was quite a trouper. In a lengthy career, he wrote everything (mostly B's) from the almost sublime to the totally ridiculous, including such crime flicks as Cry Vengeance, Loophole, Mexican Manhunt, Roadblock, The Tougher They Come, Mary Ryan, Detective, The Corpse Came C.O.D. , The Big Fix , Blonde Alibi , Murder by Invitation, Hold That Woman, Torchy Blane in Chinatown, Torchy Blane in Panama and that beloved 1936 classic that Canadians of a certain generation fondly remember from its annual serializations in-between periods on Hockey Night in Canada, the deliciously cheesy King of Hockey.
FILM
