Scandal Sheet (1952)

Overrated and overhyped

Beautiful, moving film.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Newspaper editor Chapman (Crawford) is caught in a web. Trouble is it's of his own making. True, he didn't mean to kill his destitute wife (DeCamp), who confronts him after years of separation. But he did mean to excise poor old alky Barnes (O'Neill) who's unknowingly put the cops on his trail. Worse, the bloodhound really on his trail is his protégé McCleary (Derek) now the paper's chief investigative reporter. So Chapman's got to keep up appearances as a successful editor even while the web closes in.The movie presents a number of ironies. Chapman's hard-driving manner is not very likable, but he's not really a killer. He's a guy who can't bear giving up his premier position as the city's leading editor because of a vengeful wife. But now a series of happenings have caught him up and the snowball keeps rolling ever closer, thanks ironically to protégé McCleary.There's a lot of good material here, but I can't help thinking the impact's undercut by key casting mistakes. Derek tries hard, but lacks the gravitas of a hard-driving reporter. Unsurprisingly his pretty-boy career soon moved into costume epics. Crawford's perfect as a no nonsense newsman, who's turned the paper's circulation around with his single-minded style. Trouble is it's a basically one-note performance. There's no attempt by either director or actor to show a more sympathetic side. Thus the final element of a tragic web is undercut and the impact sacrificed to an awkward ending. The 80-minutes is okay as a noir, what with the occasional expressive lighting, feckless cops, and doomed protagonist. But ex-newsman and novelist Sam Fuller's expose of the newspaper business appears paramount. Note how often a newshound uses payoffs, large and small, to one-up the cops. Not much professional ethics here. Anyway, it's a strong supporting cast, though the picture perfect Reed is just that, while pairing her with Derek resembles a spread in Photoplay. I suspect they were hired to offset the many authentic slum-dwellers among the city's down and out; then too, lead actor Crawford didn't make it on his looks. All in all, it's an interestingly ironic film, but not one of Fuller's or director Karlson's more memorable.

Although inspired by Samuel Fuller's 1944 novel, The Dark Page, this film was directed by Phil Karlson. The casting of John Derek is disappointing too. But everything else about Scandal Sheet is pretty good: It's atmospheric photography by Burnett Guffey and even the director's attempt to mimic the atmosphere of John Farrow's masterpiece, The Big Clock. Of course the cast can't hold a candle to the actors in that film, Nor can the writing and direction. Nevertheless, on its own level, Scandal Sheet offers reasonable entertainment. The director is inclined to over-use close-ups, but he has a few inventive moments, such as the track with Broderick Crawford past the pawnshop. Henry O'Neill gives an effectively seedy study of a has-been reporter and other cameo players like Ida Moore's morgue secretary and Cliff Clark's morgue doctor, James Milican's police lieutenant, Jay Adler's rummy, and Don Beddoe's pawnbroker, excel too. Donna Reed looks reasonably attractive, Jonathan Hale is effective as the publisher; but Henry Harry Morgan has a routine part as a photographer. Production values are very moderate by "A"-picture standards. But at least, Karlson didn't muff it! Available on a Sony DVD in The Sam Fuller Collection.

Entertaining noir directed by Phil Karlson, who also did the excellent Kansas City Confidential the same year, and based on a novel by Sam Fuller (and the film can be found in a box set of Fuller films Columbia released a while back). Broderick Crawford stars as the editor-in-chief of a scandal sheet. He runs into an ex-wife whom he dumped years earlier, before changing his name and climbing to his current position. The woman wants to spoil his success, so he kills her. Of course, such a sensational and mysterious murder is just the kind of thing his newspaper covers, and the story, much to Crawford's chagrin, makes his paper more popular than ever. Reporters Donna Reed and John Derek are getting closer and closer to the truth, and Crawford, though he tries to throw them off his scent, is basically trapped by his position. Henry O'Neill is also excellent as the broken-down drunk who first uncovers the secret.

I mean that just about everything he does he steals every scene he's in.Broderick Crawford was just a huge personality on and off screen that I imagine other actors, being around him, kinda had a feelin' they didn't have a chance of stealin' a scene away from him. He was just that good an actor.This little film is no different. He plays a newspaper editor with somethin' to hide.Throughout the film he has to make sure no-one finds out his little secret from his past. Enter his favorite little cub reporter who thinks of like a son and a woman's columnist who thinks he has just sunk the paper's integrity by printing scandalous news and not the real news people wanna read. She basically see's right through him but not all the way...well until the end.Check this one out. It's a winner for sure. I was pleasantly surprised.