What could possibly happen when one woman leaves her job? When gangsters and $50,000 are on the line, a lot! In Big Town After Dark, mobster gambling rackets and family betrayal is only the beginning of the story! Phillip Reed, Ann Gillis, and Hillary Brooke star is this dramatic feature from 1947.
Big Town After Dark (1947) starring Phillip Reed, Ann Gillis, Hillary Brooke
Cast of characters
- Phillip Reed (Merrily We Live) … Steve Wilson. The crusading newspaper editor, who’s in love with Lorelei — even though both of them are too stubborn to admit it to each other.
- Hillary Brooke (Sherlock Holmes: The Woman In Green; Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd) … Lorelei Kilbourne. Steve’s ace reporter, who’s just published her first novel. In a moment of pique, she give Steve her two week notice. Although she clearly wants him to ask her to stay.
- Richard Travis (Missile to the Moon) … Chuck LaRue. Crook, running a gambling house. He stages a kidnapping of the publisher’s niece, without giving any evidence to that effect. He’s paid off when publisher Peabody buys $50,000 of stock in his company. Which Steve uses as leverage against him.
- Ann Gillis (Edison the Man) … Susan Peabody LaRue. Editor Peabody’s sweet, innocent niece, who’s hired as a cub reporter. And she’s clearly more than she’s telling.
- Vince Barnett (The Corpse Vanishes) … Louie Snead
- Joe Sawyer (The Public Enemy) … Monk
- Robert Kent … Jake Sebastian (as Douglas Blackley)
- Charles Arnt (Christmas in Connecticut) … Amos Peabody. The publisher of the newspaper, Susan’s uncle. He’s paid her way through college, puts her up in an apartment, and gives her a weekly allowance as well. He pays a $50,000 ransom for her as well.
- Joseph Allen … Wally Blake–Reporter (as Joe Allen Jr.)
- William Haade (Key Largo) … Marcus
Product Description
While exploring the dark underbelly of the gambling world, newspaper editor Steve Wilson is beaten senseless and left to die by the river. He awakes in a hospital bed and discovers that his companion has been kidnapped. Lead reporter, Lorelei Kilbourne, is enlisted to help investigate and discovers troubling connections between the missing girl and her kidnappers. Wilson discovers he’s up against a much greater enemy than he anticipated. Faced with double-crosses and a growing list of thugs, Wilson and Kilbourne struggle to unmask the true villain at the bottom of the treachery.
Big Town After Dark was the third of four movies based on the popular radio series “Big Town.” Combining the hard-boiled dialogue of film noir with the sassy, fast-talking romance of His Girl Friday, the “Big Town” series had widespread appeal, moving from radio to film to a television series in the 1950s.
Additional cast
- Fred Aldrich … Police Car Driver (uncredited)
- Don Barclay (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man)) … Gambler (uncredited)
- Benny Bartlett … McGonigle. (uncredited) Critical to the story, a news source that’s friends to Lorelei, and suspicious of Susan.
- Gregg Barton … Detective (uncredited)
- Gladys Blake (Blondie: Footlight Glamour )… Gambler (uncredited)
- Dorothy Christy … Card Shark (uncredited)
- Sumner Getchell … Harvey Cushman–Reporter (uncredited)
- John Holland (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) … District Attorney Harding (uncredited)
- Richard Keene … Jimmy O’Brien–Photographer (uncredited)
- Frank Marlowe … Hoodlum in LaRue’s Office (uncredited)
- Mary Newton (The Seventh Victim) … Nurse (uncredited)
- Anne O’Neal (The Bishop’s Wife) … Gambling woman (uncredited)
- Marin Sais … Mrs. O’Hara–Game Operator (uncredited)
- Arthur Space (The Fuller Brush Girl) … Fletcher–City Editor (uncredited)
- Forrest Taylor … Dealer (uncredited)
- Dorothy Vaughan (The Ape) … Charwoman (uncredited)
- Guy Wilkerson (The Haunted Palace) … Newspaper Building Custodian (uncredited)