SCANDAL SHEET
US, 1952, 78 minutes, Black-and-white.
Broderick Crawford, John Derek, Donna Reed, Rosemary De Camp, Henry O' Neill, Harry Morgan.
Directed by Phil Karlson.
Phil Karlson directed quite a number of brief tough thrillers in the 1940s and 1950s. This is a good one.
It begins as a story about the tabloids and the reporters exploiting the public, interviews with unwitting participants, photographs, leading to tabloid headlines. John Derek and Harry Morgan are the exploiters. The editor of the paper is played by Broderick Crawford, soon after his Oscar-winning role as Huey long in All the King’s Men, 1949. He is tough, is cool before the board rather prim about his tabloid headlines but he turns the table on them by telling them of their high dividends from his work. His also on the way to a bonus the cause of the increasing circulation.
The paper runs a dense in New York City for those who are looking for partners – pre-on-line dating services. At the dance the editor is found by his former wife, threatened, his going to apartment, a struggle and his accidentally killing her but setting up the situation as if she had an accident in the bath, pawning her clothes and suitcase – with the pawn ticket becoming part of his downfall.
Which means that the film turns into a thriller about a murder. The young journalist, assisted by his sometimes sceptical girlfriend, Donna Reed, is determined to solve the case. The editors decides to support him, making public the paper’s concern about the dead woman and her funeral.
Which means then that the audience is waiting to see how the editor is going to be exposed and how we will handle it – rather interestingly in terms of the Minister who performed the original wedding and cannot remember what the grim look like but remembers his voice. The shootout at the editorial office is a bit peremptory – but, this is quite an interesting film, as thriller and as questioning the ethics of tabloid media.
1. A 1950s drama? The media and tabloids, circulation? Turning into a murder investigation?
2. The New York settings, the newspaper and offices, production? The dance floor? Apartments? The shop? Bars? The musical score?
3. The title, the tone? Tabloids and scandal? Mark Chapman, as editor, ambitions, the type of articles and headlines, sensation for stories, circulation going up, his power, the bonus? Leadership of the young journalists?
4. Steve Mc Cleary, on-the-job, the initial interview, the woman thinking he was the police, his assistant with photographs? The police arriving? Headlines, printing, the papers on the streets, the graphs for the higher circulation?
5. Mark, the Board of Directors, the complaints, talking of scandals, the elitist attitudes, Chapman’s challenge to them, talking about the dividends? Julie and Steve and their bet, going out to dinner, Mark accompanying them?
6. The dance, for the lonely hearts of New York, the crowds there, taking the photos, the prizes, the couple wanting to marry, her doting on him? The contrivance of the dance?
7. Charlotte, recognising her husband, confronting him, at the apartment, the truth, the marriage, his brutality, leaving her, changing his name, his journalistic background, becoming Mark Chapman? The talk at the apartment, his violent reactions, wanting to get rid of her, the threats, pushing her, the accidental death, contriving the death in the bath? The suitcase, the pawnshop and the ticket? The ticket with his money? The encounter with Charlie, giving him the cash, losing the ticket and the consequences?
8. Charlie, his past as a journalist, drinking, wanting a job? Mark fobbing him off? Julie and her concern? At the pawnshop, getting the suitcase, discovering the truth, the ticket and the money, the phone call to the paper, Steve rejecting him? Chapman and Charlie’s death?
9. Steve, capacity for news, pursuit of the case of Charlotte, getting information, going through the photographs taken at the dance? Getting her identity? The background of marriage? The hypothesis of what actually happened?
10. Giving the information to Mark, his fear, his reactions, his going positive, the headlines, offering to bury Charlotte? Offering the reward?
11. Steve, going to the bar, the variety of witnesses, taking witness to Mark, saying that the shadowy figure resembled him?
12. The brochure, circulating amongst judges and celebrants? Julie offering to help? The visit to the judge, bring him to New York?
13. The confrontation, the photos from the wedding, the judge not able to identify Mark, but identifying the voice?
14. Steve, his disillusionment, Julie’s response?
15. The confrontation, Mark and the gun, the police, the shooting?
16. Tabloid themes, journalistic investigations? In the murder investigation?
