Unholy Partners (1941)

Edward G. Robinson plays a newspaperman who comes home from World War I with a plan to launch a tabloid newspaper. The problem is he can't find financial backing from any reputable businessmen, so he gets it from racketeer Edward Arnold. Which is fine, at first, until Robinson starts running stories that tick Arnold off.Enjoyable crime drama from MGM with solid turns from the two Edwards playing characters that aren't so nice. Kind of funny that the protagonist in this is less likable than the villain!. They always tried to give Eddie G. young love interests and in this one it's Laraine Day, who wasn't even born when WWI ended. She's fine but miscast as one could never see her being into Robinson and, frankly, she's at least a decade younger than she should have been. Really I'm not sure why it was necessary to set the film in the post-WWI years, especially when they don't try very hard to capture that era. Many of the hairstyles and clothing are of the 1940s not 1920s. The movie also features a banal "young lovers" subplot. William T. Orr plays the guy and he is nothing special. Lovely Marsha Hunt plays the girl and she gets to sing, which is nice, but other than that also nothing special. Despite some issues, there's no way a movie starring Edward G. Robinson and Edward Arnold could be a total misfire. The movie is most interesting when these two are on screen together. Give it a look for the Eddies.

Another great Edward G. Robinson performance in an entertaining film about a hard driven newspaper man,with fine performances all around. However,what gets me is this: Why place a film in a period setting and ignore aspects of that setting? In this case,this 1941 film was set in 1919. Besides a few indiscretions like inappropriate hairstyles on the women,at one point Marsha Hunt sings After You've Gone in a 1940's swing style with a big band(this is at about 15 years before the "Big Band Era"!) Funny...this film was made only twenty years after the story takes place...no one remembered what things were like? I am reminded of a similar problem(although much worse)in the Gene Krupa Story,where we had "boppy"soloists in the "twenties"! If film makers want contemporary hairstyles,music,etc.,why make a period film?

This was a "new" one to me...I don't recall ever hearing or reading a thing about it. Touches of comedy and a terrific story, with wonderful scenes of Robinson and Edward Arnold turning in superb performances. Nice support from the likes of Marsha Hunt, Larraine Day, Don Beddoe and the very underrated DON COSTELLO, so memorable in "The Blue Dahlia." An interesting companion piece to LeRoy's 1931 "Five Star Final" which also starred Robinson. Superior writing and directing, but a twisty ending which comes over as contrived.

This movie was a great reinactment of how newspapers changed their formats from pure journalism to sensationalism just after World War I. Edward G. Robinson, in one of his best unknown roles, starts his own N.Y. tabloid by becoming partners with a gangster who finances everything. The paper crusades against the underworld and soon enough the unholy partners are at conflict. A superp film that gives a better insight of the early newspaper business than "Citizen Kane"(Not saying its better than the Orsen Welles classic).Definatly a high recomendation; insight, drama, love, and guns.