“Wait, did you say you poisoned one of us?”
“Why, yes, I did. But I can’t remember which one of you.” – Surrealist Theater.
Deadline U.S.A. (1952) is an example of the conundrums presented by remaining loyal to the tenets of democracy, rather than the wretchedness of crass capitalism. Ed Hutcheson is the managing editor of the daily newspaper The Day, recently orphaned through the death of its founder and owner, John Garrison. Garrison’s family, his heirs, are looking to sell the paper to a competitor, which will forthwith shut it down.
The Day’s reporters have been covering and investigating the death of Bessie Smith, a young woman involved with the boss of the local mob, as movie reporters are wont to do. Hutcheson must preserve the paper if the investigation is to continue; reporters are mourning the loss of the paper as if it were their family; his ex-wife is, well, his ex-wife; and gangsters are out to stop the investigation.
It’s a social hurricane with Hutcheson at the middle, and it’s riveting.
It’s not perfect. The ex-wife is little more than a cardboard cutout, while many of the minor role characters had more verve, and better development, than did her role. The Italian-American role is fairly cliched. But the price to be paid by many of these characters is deftly and effectively conveyed to the audience, without the extended dramatics we’d be likely to see in today’s movies.
In a sense, it’s an all-American movie.
I won’t recommend it, as I thought the ex-wife’s role should have been redone, but if you have an open afternoon, or are a Bogart-completist, you won’t regret seeing this one.
