Looking for Trouble
| Looking for Trouble | |
|---|---|
Film poster
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| Directed by | William A. Wellman |
| Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Written by |
Leonard Praskins Elmer Harris J. Robert Bren (story) |
| Starring |
Spencer Tracy Jack Oakie Constance Cummings |
| Music by | Alfred Newman |
| Cinematography | James Van Trees |
| Edited by | Hanson Fritch |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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March 29, 1934 |
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Running time
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80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Looking for Trouble is a 1934 American Pre-Code crime film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Spencer Tracy, Jack Oakie and Constance Cummings. After he is rejected by a woman, a man leaves his safe job and joins a gang that robs banks. The film features actual stock earthquake footage.
A telephone line repairman named Joe Graham (Spencer Tracy) lives in Los Angeles. One night he's offered a promotion but declines telling his boss he's happy being a "trouble shooter" working out in the field solving problems for a living.
Later Joe’s co-worker and partner Dan Sutter cannot work the night shift, and Joe has to work with a new repairman called Casey, who has an aptitude for practical jokes. Joe and Casey run into some odd things during their shift, finding a corpse at the place of their first assignment.
When the shift is over, both men go for a drink, and they find their colleague Dan very drunk in a casino. This night the police are on their way to raid the casino, but Casey hears about the raid and manages to warn both his colleagues and the casino owner, causing the raid to be a complete failure.
The next day both Casey and Joe are accused of tipping off the owner and causing the raid to be unsuccessful. In an attempt to exculpate himself, Joe tells his boss about the reason for their involvement in the events, and about Dan’s visit to the casino. The result is that Dan is fired from his position without notice.
Joe has been involved with one of the company’s switchboard operators, Ethel Greenwood. They split up after he suspected her of dating his partner Dan one night when Joe was working overtime. Now he reconciles with her and they go back together. However, soon after they are reunited, Dan tells Ethel about how he got fired from work, and Ethel is upset with Joe for causing it. They break up again.
Joe and Ethel don’t see each other for a while, but he hears she quit her job and started working for another company together with Dan. It turns out the office where they work is a cover-up for a racketeering operation, run by two men by the name of George and Max. Their illegal business idea consists of tapping into the phone lines of a nearby investment company to get secret stock tips.
Joe is unaware of this sly operation, until one day when he and Casey are sent to investigate the investment company’s phone lines. They have complained about the lines malfunctioning, and when Joe sees the tap he discloses the racketeering operation. Joe catches Dan red handed, as he is trying to get into the investment company’s vaults and steal the contents.
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