Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

utgard14 Paul Muni plays a newspaper editor who refuses to run a story accusing a missing man of embezzlement without proof. All the other papers in town run the story and Muni, who's under contract, is subsequently demoted to the lonely hearts column. There he writes advice to the lovelorn under the name of Nellie Nelson. While working on the column he unexpectedly gets a lead that may solve the case of the missing man and get him his editor job back.Fun, well-paced WB crime drama with touches of comedy. Muni's terrific and is backed up by a great cast, including the always enjoyable Glenda Farrell, Douglas Dumbrille, Donald Meek, Berton Churchill, and many more fine character actors. Ned Sparks, master of the deadpan delivery, steals every scene he's in. Remade several times but this is the best.

MartinHafer HI, NELLIE! is a fun film to watch but in no way could it be mistaken for a deep or high quality product. Instead, it's just simple fun--plot holes and all.Paul Muni plays a managing editor at a newspaper. However, his decision to underplay a big story is second-guessed by the owner and as a result, he is demoted to writing a "lonely hearts" column. His co-workers ridicule him unmercifully, but after initially refusing this indignity, he actually makes a success of it. However, he always is thinking about how to get his old job back, as he misses the excitement of crime and other lurid stories.The film has some very good support for Muni, with Glenda Farrell, Donald Meek, Douglass Dumbrille, Ned Sparks, Robert Barrat and others. So, while it's a relatively cheap and silly production, the supporting characters make it a lot more interesting and worth watching. However, just be prepared for an amazingly easy resolution to the mystery in this film and some jumps in logic. Good as a time-passer but far from Warner's or Muni's best.

bkoganbing In that stretch of years between his performance in I'm A Fugitive From A Chain Gang and The Story Of Louis Pasteur, Paul Muni hit a dry patch with his home studio of Warner Brothers. They put him in a series of films way beneath his talent when you consider what he subsequently did and I'm told he particularly despised this film. From his point of view I can see why.Still Hi, Nellie! is not all that bad, though I think Muni was definitely a second choice. James Cagney must have been doing something else at the time. The film has the feel of a project meant for Cagney.Knowing that and knowing how much he wanted to do much more serious parts Muni pulls out all the stops and hams it up to beat the Philharmonic. I guess he had to have some fun.Muni is your hardboiled editor of a city newspaper, a very typical part for the Thirties. But when he uncharacteristically soft pedals a story about a bank folding and a prominent civic leader disappearing, he gets himself demoted. Publisher Berton Churchill can't fire him because of a contract, but instead demotes him to the writer of the advice to the lovelorn column. That's a source of great amusement to all those who were under him before, especially Glenda Farrell who was writing that column and wanted a chance for some hard hitting journalism.But Paul is nothing else if not resourceful and when a chance sob sister letter comes to his attention that might give him a lead on that story that he got in a sling over, he runs with it.Warner Brothers and director Mervyn LeRoy gave Paul a really good cast to support him with Donald Meek playing the world's oldest office boy, Douglass Dumbrille as the editor who succeeds Muni, and Robert Barrat as the political boss of the city and ultimate villain of the piece.It's not Zola, or Pasteur, but Hi, Nellie is not half bad as entertainment. Just not up to Paul Muni's exacting standards.

Servo-11 Having seen Paul Muni in so many dramas, I wondered if he could pull off comedy as well. I needn't have worried. Since he's teamed with Glenda Farrell, a master of the wisecrack, he gets solid support and the looks they exchange throughout the movie are priceless. One scene that I loved was when Glenda is pretending to be Nellie Nelson so that a woman will confide in her and she's bossing Muni around like he's her office boy.The plot isn't that original. In fact, there are several versions on the same theme (star reporter demoted), but this one has the star material to give it an extra life. Ned Sparkes also adds to the fun.