Tonight's Movie: Scandal Sheet (1952) at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival

I saw five new-to-me films at last weekend's Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival!

I really enjoyed four of them; I guess I could say the other one baffled me. (That title would be THE SHANGHAI GESTURE.) I hope to write about all of them, and I'll begin with the last one I saw during the weekend, SCANDAL SHEET (1952).

SCANDAL SHEET reminded me quite a bit of THE BIG CLOCK (1948), with its story of journalists trying to solve a murder, not realizing the investigation will point the finger at one of their own.

That person is newspaper editor Mark Chapman (Broderick Crawford), who covered up that he unintentionally killed his estranged wife (Rosemary DeCamp); he then intentionally murdered an alcoholic former reporter, Charlie (Henry O'Neill), who was on to him.

As Chapman's employees, reporters Steve McCleary (John Derek) and Julie Allison (Donna Reed), circle ever closer to finding out who committed the murders, Chapman has to play along and hope they won't be able to close in on the truth.

This 82-minute movie was briskly directed by Phil Karlson, who made other movies I've enjoyed such as THUNDERHOOF (1948) and 99 RIVER STREET (1953). There were three contributors to the solid script, which was based on a novel by writer-director Samuel Fuller.

I especially appreciated Reed's role as a savvy, mature reporter. Unlike the younger, less seasoned Steve, Julie seems to be "on" to Chapman from the beginning. She initially doesn't like what Chapman is doing to the paper or to her friend Charlie; while I don't think she dreamed Chapman was a murderer, she clearly recognized he wasn't a good man.

Derek was half a decade younger than Reed and looks it, but it works in the context of his role as the relatively wide-eyed Steve, who admires Chapman's success and has quite a shock coming. Despite the difference in ages and personalities, Reed and Derek build a good rapport in the film and I enjoyed watching them work together.

DeCamp, always a remarkable chameleon, makes the most of her brief role; her presence lingers after her character's passing.

The excellent cast also includes James Millican as a police detective, Harry Morgan as a newspaper photographer, and Griff Barnett, Jonathan Hale, Cliff Clark, Katherine Warren, and Don Beddoe.

The movie was shot in black and white by Burnett Guffey.

SCANDAL SHEET is available on DVD in the Samuel Fuller Collection. It is also part of the limited edition region-free Blu-ray set from Indicator; the set sold out but may be available from vendors.

SCANDAL SHEET is a solidly entertaining movie which I recommend.

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