In his audio commentary on the DVD for Deadline-U.S.A., Eddie Muller claims that the film is not a noir. Then about fourteen minutes into the film commentary, he states that he scheduled the film to open his 2008 Noir City Film Festival in San Francisco. I have said (written) many times that I’m not a big fan of categories for film, and maybe Muller feels as ambiguous about film categories as I do. But no matter what category you want to put it in (drama, crime thriller, film noir, fictional commentary on the state of the newspaper industry), Deadline-U.S.A. is a great film. And in spite of being produced in 1952 and in black and white, it’s a film with a modern theme: the decline of the free press in the United States.
The film starts with a Senate commission hearing, which is attended by the press and is filmed by television cameras. A reporter from the Day, George Burrows, is in the courtroom taking notes while Tomas Rienzi testifies about spending money to influence an election, a charge he denies. When Burrows gets back to the newspaper offices to talk to the managing editor, Ed Hutcheson, Hutcheson learns that the newspaper is about to be sold to Lawrence White, owner of a rival and competitor called the Standard.
The Standard is the opposite of the Day: it is a tabloid full of sensationalism and yellow journalism. Ed Hutcheson laments how readers want horoscopes, dream interpretation, comics, and so on. He wants to fight the sale of the Day, but the heirs, the widow and two daughters of the original owner, are determined to sell. It is now Hutcheson’s job to tell the employees that the newspaper will be sold and that they will lose their jobs.
Hutcheson goes “home” to his ex-wife Nora. It’s home to him because he still loves Nora, but they are divorced and living separately. She wishes he hadn’t come to visit, but he stays. He is too drunk to argue when she arranges their separate sleeping accommodations. The next morning, Ed gets a phone call about George Burrows, the newspaper reporter, who is found in an industrial park after a beating by Rienzi’s men. Ed runs off, and Nora is reminded why they divorced in the first place. When they do finally meet for dinner, Nora has just enough time of Ed’s time to announce that she plans to remarry before Ed gets another phone call and rushes off about another important story.
This latest story involves a murder mystery, and the reporter who wants to follow the lead is the only female reporter at the Day: Mrs. Willebrandt. An unidentified woman was found in the river wearing only a mink coat, and Willebrandt found out that the woman’s mother, Mrs. Schmidt, arrived at the morgue to identify her daughter. Willebrandt is convinced that the mother knows a lot more than she is telling. The daughter, Bessie, used the name Sally Gardner, and Willebrandt believes the mother and the daughter’s alias are two details that will be part of a great story.
(This article about Deadline-U.S.A. contains some spoilers.)
Several story threads are thus introduced in the film: Tomas Rienzi, organized crime, and general corruption; the impending sale of the Day and the attendant legal wranglings that Ed Hutcheson hopes will thwart the inevitable; the possibility that Ed and Nora Hutcheson can renew their romance and marriage; and the mystery of the unidentified woman found in the river. Some are more closely connected than others, but all are wrapped up by the film’s end, including the legal case concerning the sale of the Day to Lawrence White of the Standard.
The probate court decides that the sale to the Standard should go through, but Ed Hutcheson stands up in court to defend the Day. He invokes the readers, the employees, the unfinished business concerning Thomas Rienzi, and the paper’s desire to expose Rienzi’s corruption. He also defends a free press, competition, the marketplace of ideas, all of which sound like arguments that could be made today about the media. Earlier in the film, Hutcheson tries to convince Garrison’s heirs not to sell, and he made similar arguments then, too. Unfortunately, he cannot stop the sale.
But Hutcheson isn’t going to let the Day fade away quietly. He prints an editorial about Tomas Rienzi, Rienzi’s corruption, and its effects on the life of the city. He doesn’t use his own name in the byline; he uses John Garrison’s. John Garrison was the owner of the Day and died eleven years earlier. When he finally discovers hard evidence of Rienzi’s crimes, he publishes the story, and it’s just in time for the newspaper’s final edition. The evidence comes from Mrs. Schmidt, mother of the murdered girl. She has her daughter’s diary, and she is not afraid about publication of some of the details it contains. She trusts the newspaper, not the police, because she has read the Day for thirty-one years; it was how she learned English after immigrating to the country.
As I mentioned, the DVD comes with audio commentary by film historian Eddie Muller. Just like his other commentaries, Muller’s commentary for Deadline-U.S.A. is a lot of fun to listen to and is packed with information about many aspects of the film. The film has a special significance for Muller because he grew up around newspapers thanks to his father, who wrote about boxing, and because he himself worked in journalism, all of which makes his commentary that much more entertaining. Here are just a few of the facts Muller discusses in his commentary:
◊ The offices of the New York Daily News were used for the location shootings for the newspaper: the press room, printing rooms, trucking, and so on.
◊ The director Richard Brooks starts the story with a congressional hearing, which was common in film and on television in the 1950s.
◊ The newspaper business allowed Richard Brooks to survive the Great Depression. He worked for the New York World after it had been folded into the New York Telegram. The real-life story about Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World story is used in the film. The story about the newspaper’s heirs was based almost exactly on the story of Pulitzer’s heirs. Margaret Garrison is a stand-in for Joseph Pulitzer.
◊ Richard Brooks wrote the part of Ed Hutcheson for Humphrey Bogart, and he had to fight Darryl Zanuck to cast Bogart. Bogart is perfect for the role because he could portray cynicism and idealism at the same time on-screen. Bogart as Ed Hutcheson voices a lot of Joseph Pulitzer’s editorial philosophy.
◊ Richard Brooks cares less about organized crime than he does about the decline of newspaper journalism. Richard Brooks’s ideas about merging newspapers as a threat to democracy are prescient.
Because of the different story threads, the narrative seems to jump from one plot detail to another, and Deadline-U.S.A. is another film where viewers really have to pay attention to all the clues and remember names and details. Seeing the film more than once is a big help, but that shouldn’t be a hardship because the film is so good. Humphrey Bogart is great in the role of Ed Hutcheson. The supporting cast is filled with several film noir regulars like Paul Stewart, Martin Gabel, and Tom Powers. Ethel Barrymore plays the role of the widowed heir Margaret Garrison. She, Bogart, and the supporting cast all give strong performances (probably no surprise to fans of film noir and classic films).
Deadline-U.S.A. is one of those films that viewers have to watch carefully because every detail counts, and repeat viewings are well worth the time. The role of Ed Hutcheson is a bit different for Humphrey Bogart, but that just makes the film all the more interesting. It’s amazing that so many of his lines could be repeated today and remain true about the free press in the United States—almost three-quarters of a century later.
March 14, 1952, release date • Directed by Richard Brooks • Screenplay by Richard Brooks • Music by Cyril J. Mockridge • Edited by William B. Murphy • Cinematography by Milton R. Krasner
Humphrey Bogart as Ed Hutcheson • Ethel Barrymore as Margaret Garrison • Kim Hunter as Nora Hutcheson • Ed Begley as Frank Allen • Warren Stevens as George Burrows • Paul Stewart as Harry Thompson • Martin Gabel as Tomas Rienzi • Joseph De Santis as Herman Schmidt • Joyce MacKenzie as Katherine (aka Kitty) Garrison Geary • Audrey Christie as Mrs. Willebrandt • Fay Baker as Alice Garrison Courtney • Jim Backus as Jim Cleary • Carleton Young as Crane, Garrison’s daughters’ lawyer • Selmer Jackson as Williams • Fay Roope as Judge McKay • Parley Baer as the headwaiter • John Doucette as Hal • Florence Shirley as Ms. Barndollar • Raymond Greenleaf as Lawrence White • Tom Powers as Andrew Wharton • Thomas Browne Henry as Fenway • Phillip Terry as Lewis Schaefer, Nora’s fiancé • Joseph Sawyer as Whitey Franks • Lawrence Dobkin as Larry Hansen, Rienzi’s lawyer • Clancy Cooper as Police Captain Finlay • Willis Bouchey as Henry • Joseph Crehan as White’s city editor • Kasia Orzazewski as Mrs. Schmidt • Norman Leavitt as a newsroom reporter
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox • Produced by Twentieth Century Fox