Scandal Sheet: Phil Karlson

Phil Karlson's Scandal Sheet pops and crackles with a ceaseless energy that makes it both captivating and thoroughly entertaining. The film concerns the staff of the New York Express newspaper, once a respectable, Pulitzer-prize winning publication that now serves as a cheap, gossip-driven "scandal sheet." The paper is run by the unscrupulous Mark Chapman, a colossus of a man who takes no prisoners when it comes to exploiting tragedy and suffering to sell newspapers. Of course, this changes when Mark accidentally kills his estranged ex-wife. Now he has to deal with his own blood-thirsty reporters tearing open the case and threatening to expose his terrible crime. You reap what you sow, Mr. Chapman. If Scandal Sheet seems like a lost Samuel Fuller film, that's because it almost is. The film is based on Fuller's novel The Dark Page. And though it is very competently directed by Phil Karlson, the film is nevertheless dominated by Fuller's personality and obsession with newspapermen and sensationalism. Broderick Crawford gives a delightfully overwhelming performance as Chapman. Watch how he uses his giant build as a means of intimidating others and protecting himself when the heat is on. I haven't seen an actor sweat so nervously since Orson Welles in Touch of Evil (1958). John Derek gives an alternatively energetic and flat performance as Steve McClearly, the paper's number one reporter. He fails to gain much sympathy from the audience due to his own ruthless tactics as a reporter (he pretends to be a police officer in order to grill a devastated witness of a brutal murder in the film's opening scene). At one point he arrogantly dismisses the claims of an alcoholic former reporter named Charlie Barnes (in a performance that rivals Crawford's in excellence by Henry O'Neill) who had serendipitously discovered proof of Chapman's guilt. This leads to Barnes' murder at the hands of Chapman. Unfortunately, McClearly doesn't receive any proper punishment for this other than a good tongue-wagging by a fellow reporter. By the time of his death, we have grown to genuinely love Barnes. The fact that McClearly doesn't receive a decent comeuppance for his role in his death does his character no favors in the eyes of the audience. But Scandal Sheet is still a gripping film and a fine piece of noir filmmaking.

7/10