Are You Listening?

Mar 21, 1932

1h 13m

★ 5.0

Don't touch that dial.

Overview

WBLA is on the air, presenting the live music, the sudsy dramas and the sell-sell-sell of commercial interludes that keep consumers buying and sponsors smiling. But one sponsor, a producer of plumbing supplies, isn’t happy. So WBLA scriptwriter Bill Grimes is bounced from his job, setting in motion this movie’s turn from comedic to darkly tragic. William Haines, two years removed from being Tinseltown’s top male star, plays Grimes in a melodrama noted for its glimpses of live radio production and for a Depression-era ethos that includes peroxide cuties eager to land a job, a sugar daddy or both.

Genres

Drama

Crime

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Are You Listening? Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Bill Grimes

William Haines

Laura O'Neil

Madge Evans

Sally O'Neil

Anita Page

Alice Grimes

Karen Morley

Jack Clayton

Neil Hamilton

Larry Barnes

Wallace Ford

George Wagner

Jean Hersholt

Ted Russell

John Miljan

Radio station sound effects man

Hank Mann

Mr. Carson

Murray Kinnell

Mrs. Peters

Ethel Griffies

Pierce

Charley Grapewin

A notorious Mexican bandit goes all soft and mushy when he falls for a beautiful senorita. Warner Bros.' Captain Thunder contains some of the darndest Mexican accents you've ever heard in your life. The star is Hungarian-born Victor Varconi, portraying a legendary south of the border outlaw who tries to force Canadian senorita Fay Wray to marry a rival rustler whom she despises. She pleads with the bandito so pathetically that he is moved to grant her a single wish. Without hesitation she chooses her poor but true love. The bandit king, being a somewhat honorable fellow grants the wish and without a twitch, guns down the wicked cattle thief. Fortunately the film was played for comedy, a wise decision since it probably would have garnered laughs as a straight drama anyway.

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6.0

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6.1

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6.2

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4.5

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4.6

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6.1

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6.5

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6.8

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6.5

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6.5

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6.0

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6.5

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5.6

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6.7

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5.2

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6.8

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6.3

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6.4

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