Movies that Love Newspapers
Submitted by Oedipus on Sun, 12/12/2004 - 04:45
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- Making a Living (1914) An out-of-work swindler takes a job as a reporter. After witnessing a car go over cliff, he grabs a rival reporter's camera and races to the newspaper office to enter the photo as his own. His rival is delayed when he gets caught in a woman's bedroom by her jealous husband. The swindler follows the distribution of the paper containing his 'scoop' around town where he is once again chased by the rival reporter. Both end up on the cow-catcher of a streetcar.
- The Front Page (1931) Hildy Johnson, newspaper reporter, is engaged to Peggy Grant and planning to move to New York for a higher paying advertising job. The court press room is full of lame reporters who invent stories as much as write them. All are waiting to cover the hanging of Earl Williams. When Williams escapes from the inept Sheriff, Hildy seizes the opportunity by using his $260 honeymoon money to payoff an insider and get the scoop on the escape. However, Walter Burns, the Post's editor, is slow to repay Hildy back, hoping that he will stay on the story. Getting a major scoop looks possible when Hildy stumbles onto the bewildered escapee and hides him in a roll-top desk in the press room. Burns shows up to help. Can they keep Williams' whereabouts secret long enough to get the scoop, especially with the Sheriff and other reporters hovering around?
- Advice to the Lovelorn (1933) Los Angeles newspaper reporter Toby Prentiss is continually in trouble with his editor. He is demoted to running the paper's "Miss Lonelyhearts" advice column because he missed the scoop on a major earthquake whilst out on the town. Determined to be fired from the column he starts to give crazy advice to the readers, but this only makes him even more popular.
- It Happened One Night (1934) Rebellious socialite Ellie Andrews marries King Wesley but her wealthy father has it annulled. Tired of her father's control, she runs away by diving off the family yacht in Miami and heading for New York. On the bus she meets street-smart reporter Peter Warne. They end up traveling together as Warne hopes to get a great story, and Ellie needs his worldly help. Nearing New York, with their many adventures coming to an end, they find that they are reluctantly in love and afraid to admit it to each other. After she mistakenly thinks that Warne has run out on her Ellie returns to King Wesley, but for how long?
- Libeled Lady (1936) Warren Haggerty is the chief editor of the New York Evening Star. He keeps on delaying his marriage with Gladys because of problems his newspapers must face. When it is filed a 5 million dollars claim by Connie Allenbury for having printed she is a marriage-breaker, he organizes the unconsummated marriage of Gladys and the don Juan Bill Chandler. The goal is to catch Connie alone with a married man...
- The Adventurous Blonde (1937) Angry that police detective Steve McBride is giving preferential treatment to his fiancée, reporter Torchy Blane, reporters from a rival newspaper plan a fake murder with the idea that Torchy's paper will print the story and look foolish, teaching a lesson to Torchy and McBride. The tables are turned when the fake murder turns out to be the genuine article.
- Each Dawn I Die (1939) Although innocent, reporter Frank Ross is found guilty of murder and is sent to jail. While his friends at the newspaper try to find out who framed him, Frank gets hardened by prison life and his optimism turns into bitterness. He meets fellow-inmate Stacey and they decide to help each other.
- Foreign Correspondent (1940) Johnny Jones is an action reporter on a New York newspaper. The editor appoints him European correspondent because he is fed up with the dry, reports he currently gets. Jones' first assignment is to get the inside story on a secret treaty agreed between two European countries by the famous diplomat, Mr. Van Meer. However things don't go to plan and Jones enlists the help of a young woman to help track down a group of spies.
- His Girl Friday (1940) A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying. Walter Burns, editor of a major Chicago newspaper, is about to lose his ace reporter and former wife, Hildy Johnson, to insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin, but not without a fight! The crafty editor uses every trick in his fedora to get Hildy to write one last big story, about murderer Earl Williams and the inept Sheriff Hartwell. The comedy snowballs as William's friend, Molly Malloy, the crooked Mayor, and Bruce's mother all get tied up in Walter's web.
- Citizen Kane (1941) Powerful newspaper owner Charles Foster Kane was many things to many people, both in life and, as seen in retrospective here, in death.
- Ace in the Hole (1951) Charles Tatum, a down-on-his-luck reporter, takes a job with a small New Mexico newspaper. The job is pretty boring until he finds a man trapped in a mine. He jumps at the chance to make a name for himself by taking over and prolonging the rescue effort, and feeding stories to major newspapers. He creates a national media sensation and milks it for all it is worth.
- Meet John Doe (1941) As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement. At last everyone, even Ann, takes her creation seriously...but publisher D.B. Norton has a secret plan.
- Hit the Ice (1943) Two newspaper photographers get mixed up with gangsters at a ski resort.
- Big Town (1947) The initial entry in the Pine-Thomas series based on the "Big Town" radio series finds Steve Wilson (Philip Reed) as a newly-hired managing editor brought on board to liven up "The Illustrated Press" newspaper. He runs into problems with two of the paper's star reporters, Lorelei Kilbourne (Hillary Brooke) and Pete Ryan (Robert Lowery), when his aggressive demands that they employ a yellow journalism type of reporting to build circulation, and they both resign to work for another newspaper. Wilson begins to realize that while his type of journalism does build circulation, it has also brought ruin and disgrace to some innocent victims. Lorelei and Pete are brought back by Wilson with his promise that "The Illustrated Press" will become a crusader against evil.
- -30- (1959) Managing Editor Sam Gatlin (Jack Webb) arrives in the afternoon and departs early the next morning, having assembled a morning newspaper for Los Angeles. During this implausibly active day in the life of a metropolitan newspaper, Sam and his wife Peggy argue about adopting a child. The reporter's grandson pilots a military plane from Honolulu to New York. A child is lost in the LA sewers (Gatlin composes a warning headline with picture: "Children Stay Out of These"). And copy boy Earl Collins (David Nelson, son of Ozzie) considers quitting after failing to properly deliver a bet by city editor Jim Bathgate (William Conrad) on the sex of children being born to a famous actress.
- The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) A typesetter (Don Knotts) for a small town newspaper persues his dream of becoming a big-time reporter by spending a night in an alleged haunted house.
- The Front Page (1974) Hildy Johnson is the top reporter on a Chicago newspaper during the 1930s. Tired of the whole game he's determined to quit his job to get married. His scheming editor, Walter Burns, has other plans though. It's the day before guilty (but insane) murderer, Earl Williams, is due to go to the gallows and Burns tempts Johnson to stay and write the story.
- All the President's Men (1976) In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defence case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organisers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Carl Bernstein to it. They find the trail leading higher and higher in the Republican Party, and eventually into the White House itself.
- The Amazing Spider-Man (1977) The adventures of freelance photographer Peter Parker, who, after being bitten by a radioactive spider, discovered he had gained superpowers, such as super-strength and agility and the ability to climb sheer walls and ceilings. After inventing a super-sticky web serum, he donned a red-and-black costume, and began fighting crime as the superhero Spider-Man. During the day, Parker worked for the Daily Bugle and skinflint editor J. Jonah Jameson.
- Superman (1978) Clark travels to Metropolis, where he becomes a mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet...and a caped wonder whose amazing feats stun the city: Superman!
- Superman II (1980) Clark Kent and Lois Lane are reporters for The Daily Planet newspaper. When terrorists take over the Eiffel Tower, and threaten to blow it up with a nuclear bomb, editor Perry White wants his best reporter to be there so he send Lois to cover the story. When she gets put in danger, Superman shows up to rescue her.
- Absence of Malice (1981) Paul Newman plays the son of a long dead Mafia boss who is a simple liquor warehouse owner. Frustrated in his attempt to solve a murder of a union head, a prosecutor leaks a false story that Newman is a target of the investigation, hoping that he will tell them something for protection. As his live begins to unravel, others are hurt by the story. Sally Field, the reporter, is in the clear under the Absence of Malice rule in slander and libel cases. Knowing nothing to trade to the prosecutors, Newman must regain control of his life on different ground.
- Fletch Lives (1989) Fletch is a reporter for a Los Angeles newspaper, but he acts more like a detective. When an obscure relative leaves him a Louisiana mansion in his will, Fletch is naturally curious. Arriving in Louisiana, events occur that make him suspect that all is not well, and there is more to the property than he has been led to believe.<
- Abgeschminkt! (1993) Making Up!: An original satire about women of the 90s in search of the men of their dreams. Franzy believes she's through with men, but desperately needs new amorous story lines for the comic strip she writes for a newspaper. So she observes her friend Maischa struggling to satisfy her need for love -- and someone who knows how to install her new shelf. Since joiner Klaus demands too much attention, she sets her eyes on the good-looking footballer Rene.
- The Paper (1994) Henry Hackett is the editor of a New York City tabloid. He is a workaholic who loves his job, but the long hours and low pay are leading to discontent. Also, publisher Bernie White faces financial straits, and has hatchetman Alicia Clark, Henry's nemesis, impose unpopular cutbacks. Henry's wife Martha, a hugely pregnant former reporter of his, is fed up because he has so little time for his family. He is therefore considering an offer from Paul Bladden to edit a paper like the New York Times, which would mean more money, shorter hours, more respectability...but might also be a bit boring for his tastes. But a hot story soon confronts Henry with tough decisions.
- Aatamin poika (1996) Young journalism student Mari gets a summer job in a small country newspaper. While trying to socialise with the local people, she meets a shy and mildly retarded young man who has the habit of going naked around the village. Liberal Mari slowly gets to know the guy a little better, but a friendship with the village idiot certainly won't make her life easier.
- ...Influenced by None (2003) "Freedom of the press" is a principle that twenty-first-century Americans take for granted. Eighteenth-century printers, however, were not free to express an independent view. Influenced by None, an Electronic Field Trip to Colonial Williamsburg, explores the world of Clementina Rind, printer of the Virginia Gazette, as she teaches her young orphaned children about the economics, business, and process of publishing an eighteenth-century newspaper.
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A couple more to consider: The Paper and All the President's Men.
Thanks
This is a well done list - however there are may other films that 'love' newspaper. I remember reading some editorial articles about this type of films... and the number was slightly bigger. However, well done with the list!