As great a Film Noir as there is! I LOVE Film Noir and often search them out by auditioning titles. And with one like "Scandal Sheet", what else could it be? Fronted by Broderick Crawford and co-starring Donna Reed and John Dereck with Rosemary DeCamp and Harry Morgan, the cast is as first rate as any Film Noir could hope for. It even has Columbia's master (future) Oscar Winning B&W cinematographer Burnett Guffey on board for lots of wonderful Noir shots. One more "Big Name" anywhere would have ruined it! And there's a GREAT turn by the much underrated Henry O'Neil as Charlie Barnes, a washed up drunk of a former great newspaper man. His role is small but by far the most important. Wow. Nothing more satisfying than a great Film Noir with all the clichés in tact and WORKING FOR the picture instead of against it. You absolutely know how it will end up, but there's still lots of high powered tension. And at about 80 minutes, it doesn't feature any unnecessary padding. Low budget pictures never do and it only makes them tighter. I caught it on TCM. Keep an eye out for it. A truly satisfying Film Noir in all respects! There's even a comical (I'm convinced it was definitely meant to be) bit in the opening scene with Derek pretending to be a cop and doing a "Joe Friday" in telling a distraught woman "I know it's rough lady, but I only want the facts!" Moments later in walks Harry "Bill Gannon" Morgan! A little icing before you even have at the cake. As the headlines in the picture itself might have said in a self review: Terrific! Fantstic! A MUST SEE!
Review of Scandal Sheet
