Jarrico be removed because of his communist affiliations. Jarrico took this to court but lost because it was held he had voided his morals clause. This opened the floodgates for producers to employ blacklisted writers during the McCarthy Era without having to credit them. Reception Box-office The film lost an estimated $600,000. Critical response Bosley Crowther, the film critic for The New York Times, gave the film a mixed review, writing, "The Las Vegas Story at the Paramount is one of those jukebox gambling films that gives the impression of being made up as it goes along ... For the simple fact is that Miss Russell is slightly grotesque to look upon in the tacky costumes and pinched-in get-ups with which she is cheaply adorned, and for the rest she contributes to the drama nothing more than a petulant pout and a twangy whine. But, then, the scriptwriters, Earl Felton and Harry Essex, have not made demands in their loose-jointed, tabloid-tinted fiction for more than the lady gives. And the rest of the cast does not embarrass her by playing above her head. The best to be said on behalf of this hit-or-miss R. K. O. film is that, in throwing side glances at the sap-traps of Las Vegas, it points its own indeterminate moral: patrons proceed at their own risk; the odds are in favor of the house." In their film review, Time Out magazine discussed the background of the studio that produced the film, writing, "A minor RKO gem showing all the preferences of its then owner Howard Hughes (aeroplanes, brunettes, breasts and disenchanted heroes)...It all finishes with a perfunctory nod toward family values (by marrying off an irrelevant young couple), but the film wears its intentions on its sleeve with the final shot: Hoagy looks first at the seductive Russell, then winks at us as he sings, My Resistance Is Low". Film critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and wrote, "Robert Stevenson (My Forbidden Past) walks out a winner in this pulpish crime drama that he directed with panache. It's mainly scripted by Paul Jarrico who received no screen credit because of his pro-communist sympathies that met with the disapproval of nutty right-wing RKO boss Howard Hughes, who decided to take on the powerful Screen Writers Guild. This prompted a civil suit by Jarrico, who later suffered from a blacklist by HUAC over his politics. Hughes lost