The phrase has enterred the English lexicon - see what all the fuss is about.
Hildy breaks the news to her ex-husband that she's marrying someone else. One problem: Her ex-husband is the quick-thinking editor of The Morning Post. Another problem: Hildy is his star reporter, and he can't afford to let her retire to live a quiet life with Bland Bruce Baldwin.
He convinces Bruce to convince Hildy to stay and write one last story - Earl Williams is scheduled to be executed for shooting a police officer. She doesn't feel too strongly the story until Earl Williams escapes the police and lands in her lap.
The slapstick goes into overdrive. Walter frames Bruce for multiple crimes, Bruce's mother comes to complain, reporters and corrupt politicians and officers trip over each other to find the excaped convict that Hildy's got stuffed in a roll-top desk.
It's a hell of a good story, as Walter would say. It's also a hell of a good movie.