When her controversial story about a love nest suicide is stopped by her newspaper editor, reporter Jerry Hampton quits her job and takes the advice of her boyfriend, fellow reporter Brice Regal, and applies for a post as the editor of the newspaper in Apex, California, Brice’s home town. In Apex, Jerry has a difficult time convincing Sam Webster, the conversative newspaper owner, to hire a woman as his editor, but finally secures the job on a trial basis. As she begins to transform the foundering newspaper into a modern, profitable venture, Jerry learns of a local stock deal in which Martin Blake, the town banker, has encouraged his less prosperous neighbors to invest heavily in a speculative oil well proposition. Because Blake owns the mortgage on the newspaper, Sam remains publicly silent about the issue. Soon after a lovesick Brice arrives in town, however, John Levings, Blake’s oil well overseer, submits a statement to Jerry’s newspaper in which he declares the well a failure. Skeptical, Jerry dines with Blake, who is Brice’s uncle, and questions him about the well. Casually, Blake tells her that he is considering buying some of the town’s interest in the well as a way to alleviate their losses. When Jerry returns to her office, she telephones Levings and tells him that she knows that the well is a fraud and offers him a chance to retract his statement. Cornered, Levings agrees to change his story, and Apex becomes an overnight oil boom town. Inspired by the newspaper’s growing success, Blake opts to exercise the buy-out clause in his loan agreement with Sam and offers Brice a management post. Jerry, however, refuses to work for Blake at Sam’s expense and is reluctant to marry Brice under the circumstances. As a despondent Brice prepares to leave Apex, Jerry learns that John H. Smith, the department store tycoon who was involved in the love nest suicide, is trying to force the local store owner out of business. Determined to protect the townspeople, Jerry meets with Smith, Blake and Levings, and threatens to print damaging stories about all of them unless they back down from their takeover plans. As hoped, the three men accept Jerry’s terms, and after Sam learns of her victory, Jerry finally accepts Brice’s marriage proposal. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Back Page (1934)
