Roar of the Press

SYNOPSIS On his honeymoon, reporter Wally Williams witnesses George Henderson fall to his death, and upon examining the body, Wally finds a personal advertisement clutched in Henderson's hand. Even though Wally is on his honeymoon, Gordon MacEwen, his editor, orders him to follow up on the lead. While Wally is working, a group of reporters' wives visit his bride Alice to describe the kind of life she can expect now that she has married a newspaperman. Meanwhile, Wally traces the person who placed the ad to the Bond hotel, but finds the man dead. When he searches the room, Wally discovers a card from the Rose Room, a nightclub, and several letters. Wally returns home to find an impatient Alice, but after a brief quarrel, the two make up and are about to eat a late dinner when the police arrive and take Wally away for questioning. After Henderson's death is pronounced a murder, underworld character Sparrow McGraun warns Wally that he is bumping up against powers that intend to take over the country. Sparrow adds that some of these fifth columnists hang out in the Rose Room. Later, outside his apartment, Wally is kidnapped at gunpoint by Nick Paul, an associate of the Detmar Importing Company. The kidnapping is witnessed by a newsboy, who tells MacEwen. Meanwhile, Wally is questioned by the gang, and when he refuses to reveal any information, one of the men goes after Alice. Alice is held in a separate room, where she writes a note with her lipstick and pretends to faint. When the men open a window for her, she slips the note into a glass of water and then drops the glass out the window. A passerby finds the note and calls the police. Sparrow, who knows that Nick is involved in the kidnapping, goes looking for him, and finds Wally at Nick's apartment. Sparrow and Wally then search for Alice. After Alice is rescued by the police, Wally reports that Detmar's gang planned to sabotage the defense industry, and that Henderson's organization was a front and his accomplice was a man named Berg. MacEwen is furious that Wally told his story to the police rather than break it in the paper and insists that he hurry back to work, but Sparrow, who has become fond of Alice, makes sure that Wally goes home first. Finally, Wally and Alice enjoy their honeymoon while Sparrow guards their door.