The Murder Man

Spencer Tracy is a hard-boiled reporter (yeah, another one of those) whose specialty is covering murder stories. He’s also a binge drinker, with something mysterious in his past. When one business partner is accused of killing the other for the insurance money, he gets on the case and soon proves the guy did it. The man is sent to Sing Sing, and the day he is to be executed Tracy goes up to interview him one last time. The man is vehemently maintaining his innocence, and … but I can’t tell you more than that. I will say that I saw it coming about halfway through, and I’m usually lousy at that. But it didn’t affect my enjoyment, which I guess was around three stars out of five. This is Jimmy Stewart’s first feature film, and he is all the way down in 6th billing, playing another reporter named Shorty (ha, ha, Stewart was six-three) and it’s definitely a non-starring role. Someone at the IMDb claims Errol Flynn is somewhere in there, briefly, but I couldn’t spot him. That same year he would make Captain Blood and become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.