Advice To The Lovelorn

Exceptional newspaper yarn, based on the minor masterpiece novel by Nathanael West, has Tracy as the wayward newsman demoted to writing the lonelyhearts column and becoming heavily involved with the problems of his readers. The novel's indictment of the corrupt newspaper publisher, so powerfully depicted in LONELYHEARTS, 1958, is dropped in favor of Tracy's pursuing crooked druggists victimizing customers. The overall production lifts this programmer out of grade B status and is a perfect example of Hollywood's first tempered stirrings in dealing with social problems (other than Warner Brothers, which made a crusade of it, via its gangster vehicles).