Newspaper movies
Looking to escape the rigors of a day at the newsroom? How about a nice newspaper movie?
Are we missing one of your favorites? Tell us.
Citizen Kane
H.G. Wells in Citizen Kane A classic, not just among newspaper movies, but among all American movies ever made. In June, 1998, a panel of the American Film Institute chose it as the best American feature film ever. Orson Welles directs this parallel to the life of William Randolph Hearst. The flashbacks and camera angles were ahead of the times for the 1940s. Starring Welles and Joseph Cotten. Black and white, 1941, 119 minutes
FOUR PACK
The Front Page
Pat O’Brian and Adolphe MenjouThe first of four comedic takeoffs on the 1928 Hecht and Macarthur play. The formula is simple and true: ace reporter and editor battle with each other and with corruption. This classic stars Pat O’Brien, Adolphe Menjou and Mary Brian. The first three end with one of the play’s best lines. But you won’t read it here. You’ll have to wait for the movie. Black and white, 1931, 99 minutes
Sequel: His Girl Friday
A clever twist takes the lead from two males and gives it to Cary Grant (as the editor) and Rosalind Russell (the retirement-bent reporter) for a battle of the sexes. Quick wit and repartee make this movie the fastest of the four — and, some say, the best. Black and white, 1940, 90 minutes
Threequel: The Front Page
Slower paced than its predecessors, but still very funny. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in the lead roles, Carol Burnett and Susan Sarandon support. Here, Lemmon and Matthau are in the same predicament as O’Brien and Menjou in the scene above. 1974, 105 minutes
Nyquil: Switching Channels
Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner Apparently, three times was a charm. The fourth is not charming. This version updates “His Girl Friday” and sets it at a TV station. It doesn’t cut it. (Or, is this a reflection of newspaper arrogance? Compare and decide for yourself.) Kathleen Turner and Burt Reynolds at left, as well as Christopher Reeve and others. 1988, 113 minutes
Deadline USA
Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene once called this the best newspaper movie of all time. Disagree? YOU tell him. Humphrey Bogart, as editor of The Day, has his hands full trying to stave off an attempt by the founder’s daughters to sell out to the competition, orchestrate an expose on a murderous crime empire and save his marriage. Can anyone, even Bogie, manage all that? Learn the answer — and how a running press can be used as a murder weapon. High marks for authenticity and adventure. Black and white, 1952, 87 minutes
Teacher’s Pet
Clark Gable as the city editor So, you think that the gulf between newsroom and classroom is a fairly modern invention? Check out this 1958 flick. Hard-boiled New York Evening Chronicle City Editor Clark Gable, right, is invited to speak to a college journalism class. Here’s part of his RSVP: “If you’ve ever been inside a real, live newsroom, you’ll remember that a city editor’s job is to get out a daily paper. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave him much time for such pleasant diversions as bridge luncheons, guided tours through Rockefeller Center, the canning of crab apples and lectures to journalism classes.” Soon, Mr. Hard-Boiled sees the light of day — as in Doris Day, journalism teacher. They begin to close the chasm between profs and professionals. 1958, 120 minutes
Blessed Event
Daily Express gossip columnist Al Roberts makes his living and a name for himself by writing about broadway stars and, often, the passage of time between matrimony and maternity. When he picks on a hood, the hood sends Frankie to have a little talk with Roberts about his work. The columnist gets a confession out of Frankie and turns him into his own bodyguard. Al seems pretty smart, until he takes on a crooner. Starring Lee Tracy and Dick Powell. 1932, black and white, 89 minutes
-30-
(a.k.a. Deadline Midnight)
Ever dream of having Joe Friday as your managing editor? Joe Friday IS your managing editor? See Jack Webb at his Friday-best in this film set at a metro daily, apparently in Los Angeles. He both directs and stars. “The Motion Picture Guide” calls this, “one of the most accurate and most memorable newspaper films ever made, and one of Webb’s best productions.” The clueless copy boy? That’s David Nelson (son of Ozzie and Harriet). 1959
All the President’s Men
Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford at typewriter We know how this one turns out, but a good script and authentic acting by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford keep things rolling. Redford, at right, not only bought the film rights to the book, co-produced the film and acted in it, he also suggested that the book be written in the first place. Find out why all those Baby Boomers wanted to become Carl Bernsteins and Bob Woodwards in the mid-70s.1976, 136 minutes
Absence of Malice
This is a sentimental Free Press favorite, written by former Freep executive editor Kurt Luedtke. Forever fretful Miami reporter Sally Field ties an innocent Paul Newman to the disappearance and possible murder of a union leader. A suspenseful examination of newspaper ethics. 1982, 116 minutes
Continental Divide
John Belushi at computer keyboardJohn Belushi plays Ernie Souchak, a cigarette-smoking, hat-in-the-office-type Chicago reporter who gets enough dirt on the Mob that they blow up his apartment. Soooo, as often happens in newsrooms, his editors send him out of town — to Colorado — to investigate an eagle researcher, played by Blair Brown. They clash, they kiss, they fall in love, and Belushi is called back to Chicago when one of his sources gets wasted. We know, happens all the time. 1981, 103 minutes
A Case of Libel
You’ve seen Ed Asner as a journalist; he’s powerful as an attorney in this re-enactment of the libel trial over columnist Westbrook Pegler’s smear campaign against Quentin Reynolds. Regarded as one of the best courtroom dramas ever. 1984, 92 minutes
The Pelican Brief
Julia Roberts and Denzel WashingtonIn this adaptation of John Grisham’s bestseller, a smart law student (Julia Roberts), in the course of doing her homework, trips over evidence that high government officials conspired in the assassination of two Supreme Court justices. Realizing that there is more riding on this than her semester grade, she enlists the help of an investigative reporter (Denzel Washington) in a dangerous race to get the story out. No word on her grade. 1993, 141 minutes
I Love Trouble
Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts It’s a comedy! It’s a romance! It’s an adventure film! What it wasn’t, was all that great. Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts personify a Chicago-style, David-and-Goliath newspaper war. Smug star reporter Nolte and cubbie Roberts pursue the same story — and each other — and wind up on the same side when things get dangerous. (Some of the same energy as Teacher’s Pet.) Fun, but hardly a hit. Some serious journos panned it for its romance and lack of authenticity. But, HEY, it’s a MOVIE! 1994, 123 minutes
The Paper
The rush to report and publish a story about a double homicide with racial overtones propels us through 24 hours of the life of the New York Sun and its scrappy assistant managing editor, played by Michael Keaton. Being courted by some other, arrogant newspaper in town (we wonder whose?), dueling with an avaricious managing editor (Glenn Close) and keeping his very pregnant reporter-wife (Marisa Tomei) waiting, Keaton takes us pell-mell to an ending where everything is tied up with a neat little bow. Roger Ebert wrote, “you get cocooned in a tight little crowd of hyperactive competitors, and eventually your view of normality begins to blur.” Now, THAT sounds familiar! Ron Howard directs, 1994, 112 minutes
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