I Cover the Waterfront

Crusty reporter Joe Miller (Ben Lyon), burned out after a half-decade covering San Diego's gritty waterfront, plans to move back home to Vermont after breaking one final story about international human trafficker Eli Kirk (Ernest Torrence). He cynically begins wooing Kirk's comely daughter, Julie (Claudette Colbert), to get closer to the story, but soon finds himself falling for the kindhearted girl, who makes him want to be a better man even as he gets closer to putting her father away.