Scandal Sheet

From a novel penned by film noir maestro Samuel Fuller, the premise of Phil Karlson’s Scandal Sheet is a winner: a tabloid newspaper editor tries to cover up his murder of his estranged wife while his star reporter investigates the case in search of a big scoop. Broderick Crawford growls and snaps as Mark Chapman, editor of The New York Express, who bumps into the wife he abandoned years earlier (Rosemary DeCamp) at a Miss Lonelyhearts dance sponsored by his newspaper; when they go back to her apartment to talk, Chapman accidentally kills her and flees the scene. When the news breaks, Chapman’s ambitious lead reporter Steve McCleary (John Derek) leads an investigation along with features writer Julie Allison (Donna Reed), keeping Chapman fully apprised of each clue he uncovers and driving the editor to murder again in order to keep the truth buried. Unlike many other newspaper noirs, Karlson focuses more on storytelling than social commentary, using Crawford’s natural talent for angry duplicity to sustain suspense, especially when he’s compelled to nervously interview the sources who claim they can identify the killer.