The Public Menace

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• 1935
• 1 hr 12 mins
• Comedy, Drama

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Egotistical reporter Red Foster is sent to cover the arrival of an ocean liner. On the press boat, Red meets another reporter from Detroit, who informs him that Public Enemy Number One, Tonelli, is under arrest aboard the ship. Red meets the ship's manicurist, Cassie, who has lost her American citizenship due to a mistaken allegiance to Greece. Cassie tells Red that she has a story about a big kidnapping, but she will only tell it to him if he agrees to marry her, so that she can re-enter the country. While the captain is marrying the couple, Tonelli escapes the ship with the help of the mysterious Detroit reporter, who is actually one of his henchmen. The gangsters escape on the press boat, taking the other reporters hostage. Red misses the entire story, and it is headline news the next day. He is fired from his paper, and forced to take a job selling magazine subscriptions. When a man is burned alive in an automobile accident, Cassie calls the newspaper, telling them that she has a red-hot story, but she will only give it to Red. Red is immediately rehired, and Cassie tells him that the burned man was Tonelli. Red's story is only freshly printed when the very-alive Tonelli machine-guns to death his old girl friend and her new lover. Red is once again fired, and Cassie is arrested for falsely identifying Tonelli. Tonelli becomes suspicious of Cassie's motives, and arranges for her bail. Tonelli then has her taken to his apartment, where she is followed by the police. Cassie manages to get a phone message to Red, who arrives at the apartment in an ambulance. He and Cassie convince Tonelli that they can sneak him past the police cordon in the ambulance. He agrees, but once they have the gangster in the ambulance, they deliver him to the editorial room of Red's old newspaper. Tonelli's capture becomes an exclusive story for the paper, and Red is immediately rehired. The couple then decides to stop fighting, and finally go on a real honeymoon.