Back in Circulation is a 1937 film directed by Ray Enright.
Timothea "Timmy" Blake (Joan Blondell) is a hard-charging reporter for the Chronicle, a rather sleazy New York newspaper. She is in love with her editor, Bill Morgan—Pat O'Brien, basically playing the same part he played in The Front Page—but Bill doesn't trust "dames" and couldn't possibly tear his attention away from the newspaper for long enough to get married.
Bill and Timmy get an anonymous tip: Spencer Wade, an automobile magnate who lived upstate in Plattsburgh, was murdered instead of dying of a heart attack like the authorities think. Timmy races to Plattsburgh and with nothing more than the force of her personality gets the local coroner to halt Wade's cremation and do an autopsy. Sure enough, the autopsy reveals that Wade was poisoned. Timmy's paper casts suspicion on Wade's much younger, lovely wife Arline (Margaret Lindsay). When Arline sues the paper for libel, Timmy badgers the DA into filing a murder charge against Arline. But when it looks like Arline might actually get convicted, Timmy, who's come to believe that she's innocent, has a crisis of conscience.
Tropes:
- Alcohol Hic: Timmy does this after having too many at the bar, when Bill stands her up.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: When Timmy's rival Snoopy and a bunch of other reporters show up in Plattsburgh to cover the story, a local says "You hear about the Wade poisoning?" Snoopy answers "No, no, we're interested in the local ski jumping."
- Cry into Chest: Arline does this with Dr. Forde, her true love, when deciding to surrender herself after she's charged with murder.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!:
- A giddy Timmy races out of the jail, runs into Bill, and says that she's proved Arline's innocence. That's immediately followed by a newspaper boy going "Extra, extra, read all about it," hawking the Chronicle's story about Arline being innocent. Bill figured out what Timmy was up to and says "A newspaper never waits."
- The same thing happens at the end. Timmy has finally gotten Bill to agree to take the afternoon off and marry her, when a newsboy comes by shouting "Extra, extra" and hawking a paper with the headline "Chronicle Editor Marries Star Reporter." She says "A newspaper never waits" to him and the movie ends.
- Heel Realization: Timmy eventually figures this out about herself when she realizes that she has more or less railroaded an innocent woman into prison to sell newspapers. She decides to fix things.
- Immoral Journalist: Timmy definitely becomes this when she goads the DA into indicting Arline Wade just to help the Chronicle fend off a libel suit. She winds up growing a conscience when it becomes apparent that Arline will be convicted. Her boss Bill however never does feel any remorse. In fact he makes it plain he doesn't care if Arline is innocent or not, although he's certainly happy to publish the scoop once Timmy proves Arline didn't do it.
- Insane Troll Logic: Bill makes a date to meet Timmy at the club for drinks. He blows her off, working on the paper and telling his secretary to say he's out when she calls. But when the tip comes in about Spencer Wade, he tries to find her at the club, two hours late, and is mad when she isn't there.Bill: Dame railroads me into a date and then stands me up.
- Intrepid Reporter: Timmy. She's introduced barreling her way through a police checkpoint in order to cover a train derailment. She's so determined to get the Wade story that she practically drags the coroner from his office to stop the funeral.
- Married to the Job: Bill is hesitant to marry Timmy because he can only pay attention to the newspaper.
- Plot Hole:
- The whole story plays out because the newspaper got an anonymous tip, a handwritten note that Spencer Wade was poisoned. Who sent it, and why? Certainly not Arline, who after all was trying to cover up the true nature of her husband's death.
- Arline did not turn over the suicide note that would have cleared her name because she didn't want to destroy Dr. Forde's reputation. Left unexplained is why she kept it.
- Posthumous Character: Spencer Wade, a rich businessman who married a hot Trophy Wife, but was violently jealous, and, it is implied, abusive.
- Press Hat: Timmy's photographer sidekick is wearing just such a hat, with the standard PRESS pass in the band, as they approach the train wreck. She has to tell him to take it off, as they're planning to sneak through the police roadblock by pretending to be doctors.
- Running Gag: Timmy always shattering the glass of the door when she's leaving the office, sometimes in rage, sometimes just because she's rushing out to get a scoop. One time, Bill slams it. Another time, the glass doesn't shatter when Timmy leaves, so she comes back in, looks hard at the door, then exits again, this time shattering the glass as she slams the door.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Joan Blondell is playing a career woman, a reporter, but she still manages to change into a sexy backless dress when she goes over to slimy weasel Carlton Whitney's apartment to pump him for information.
- Spinning Paper: Since this is a movie about newspaper people then it's practically obligatory that major plot developments are told through spinning paper headlines. But this film gives it a unique spin by also having the opening credits—the title, the director, the main stars—also shown onscreen via spinning paper headlines.
- Stupid Sacrifice: Arline is willing to get convicted of murder and possibly get executed in order to conceal the suicide note her husband left, the one where Spencer Wade accuses Dr. Forde of seducing his wife, destroying his marriage, and ruining his life. She does this because she wants to save her true love's reputation, but apparently it was totally unnecessary, because after Timmy finally talks her into revealing the suicide note and clearing her name, everything is fine.
- Tomboyish Name: In fact "Timmy" is called that throughout the film and it's only by seeing her byline over a story 3/4 of the way through the film that the viewer learns her actual first name is Timothea. The nickname, of course, fits her status as a working woman in a heavily male industry.
- Trophy Wife: Before Arline was wife to a much older and very rich man, she was a showgirl who danced at a nightclub.
- Widow's Weeds: Arline is wearing the standard black dress and veil for her husband's funeral.
