Actor-turned-director Paul Bartel made his reputation on a pair of cult movies: Death Race 2000 (1975), a science fiction action film with a satirical streak made for "King of the Bs" Roger Corman, and Eating Raoul (1982), a darkly comic social satire executed with witty gallows humor. Not For Publication (1984) gave the filmmaker a bigger budget and a more ambitious canvas to create a modern version of a 1930s screwball comedy set in the dirty world of New York politics and muckraking journalism. The results are only fitfully satisfying. Nancy Allen (Dressed to Kill) stars as Lois, a young socialite leading a double life: a volunteer for the Mayor's reelection campaign by day and a reporter (under a pseudonym) for a disreputable tabloid by night. David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London) is Barry, a wildlife photographer hired as PR flack and tricked into snapping photos for Lois' stories. Lois is smitten by the Mayor (Laurence Luckinbill), a political reformer with a perverse sexual appetite, and Barry becomes smitten with Lois as she chases a story through underground sex clubs, secret criminal hideaways, and a conspiracy that goes straight to the top. It opens with a girlie show producer chased by angry showgirls armed with machine guns and features a song-and-dance number in animal costumes, and David's dizzy mother (Alice Ghostly) keeps up lively conversations with the spirits of dead celebrities. Those are comic highlights in an overbusy plot. Bartel attempts to recreate the energy of a classic Hollywood newspaper comedy and the cartoonish humor of the comedies like Airplane! but he never quite nails the rapid-fire patter or the mix of visual absurdity, sleazy characters, and satirical swipes. The performances are big and broad, with Allen delivering a mix of moxie and naiveté while Naughton is all wide-eyed innocence in a corrupt world. And in keeping with Bartel's brand of irony, the "happy ending" also acknowledges that everyone has their price. It's slapdash, fitfully funny, colorful, and anarchic, often trying too hard to land its jokes. It received positive reviews but flopped on its original release and it doesn't seem to have aged particularly well. Features brief nudity (via adult magazines ogled by various characters) and suggestions of sexual deviance, but no explicit sex or onscreen nudity. Optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)