Deadline - USA

Humphrey Bogart plays a crusading newspaper editor, Ed Hutcheson, battling on three fronts: to save his paper from being sold to a tabloid rival; to expose crime boss Thomas Rienzi (Martin Gabel) and, not least of all; to get back together with his former wife (Kim Hunter). To give nothing away, two out of three ain’t bad.

Well-scripted by former newspaperman Brooks and shot in the offices of the New York Daily News for authenticity Deadline USA is a solid drama, albeit too tendentiously idealizing for modern tastes and not Brooks' best work, the content dominating formal considerations.

Bogey is in fine style (he won an Oscar that year for his portrayal of a salty dog in The African Queen), his Marlowe-like mixture of tough guy cynicism and independent moral commitment providing the epicentre for proceedings. With a good cast including Ethel Barrymore, Ed Begley and Jim Backus in the smaller roles, this is worth catching.

 

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