Director Otto Brower intertwined the screenplay written by Agnes Christine Johnston, Allen Rivkin, and Arthur Kober, with actual newsreel footage of natural and man-made disasters.

When covering a beauty contest, Bill plans to rig the results by bribing the judges, thus enabling him to get the scoop on his rival cameramen, and already have pictures of the winner.

While covering the event, he meets a reporter, Jane Mallory (Frances Dee), who is a straight arrow, in contrast to the loose women that Bill seems to attract.

At one point, Bill is trying to get her to break off her engagement to Hal, and marry him instead, and just as she begins to weaken, he hears of a huge fire back in New York, and rushes off, leaving her in the lurch.

Disconsolate over losing both his girl and his best friend, he intends to resign his job, until his boss sends him down to Mississippi to cover the failure of a levee, which has led to massive flooding.

Jane resolves to return to Mississippi with Hal, but she can't resist covering one more story, that of taking the confession of a gangster's moll.

(cast list as per AFI database)[2] In early March 1933, RKO announced that they were producing a film about two newsreel cameramen, originally titled News Reel, Harold Shumate was supposed to be the screenwriter.

[5] In April, it was announced that two cameramen from the Pathe' newsreel group were being brought in to consult on the film, still tentatively titled, News Reel.

[11][12][13] Dorothy Burgess, Hobart Cavanaugh, Mary MacLaren, June Brewster, and Gregory Ratoff were announced as members of the cast by RKO on May 23, 1933.