Search - Big News on DVD

Rare, early Carole Lombard film

Dan Day | South Bend, IN | 07/19/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"BIG NEWS is a 1929 sound film starring Robert Armstrong as a drunken newspaper reporter caught up in big city crime and corruption. The film itself is no great shakes, but the real reason to watch this DVD is to see a very young Carole Lombard. Lombard plays Armstrong's supportive, put-upon wife.It's not much of a role, but Lombard does a decent job. However, she is far from the mid 30's Lombard that most movie fans are familiar with. This film is so early in Lombard's career that she is billed as "Carol" instead of "Carole". Lombard developed an interest in numerology and added an e to her first name soon after this film.

As for Alpha Video's DVD---the print is pretty bad. The framing is not very good--there are several scenes where the top of the characters' heads are cut off! The DVD clocks in at 66 minutes. I have a book on Lombard which lists the film's running time as 75 minutes. Having only seen the film on this DVD, it's hard to say if this is a complete version or not. If you are a Carole Lombard fan, you may want to purchase this as a chance to see her before she became a big star. She still looks gorgeous despite the poor quality of the DVD. If you are not a die-hard fan of Carole or early-sound cinema, this film may not be for you."