The Power of the Press

19-year-old Douglas Fairbanks Jr plays a cub reporter who stumbles upon Jobyna Ralston as she exits the house of a recently violently deceased DA by the window. A snappy little drama from Frank Capra with welcome touches of humour to paper over the thin plot.

Director Frank Capra, signing with Columbia Pictures in 1927 after severing ties with comedian Harry Langdon, said he "wasn't at home in silent films." But his body of nine movies without sound was a learning visual tool for the young director. It helped that Columbia, headed by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn, was a recent start-up studio producing mainly shorts and two-reel comedies as fillers to play between the bigger studios' main feature films. When the ambitious Capra was hired, he at first had to prove himself as a talented filmmaker whose resume, besides directing a scant few of Langdon films, was thin. Judging from his first couple of years's output at his new studio, he definitely proved his worth.

In the first year with Columbia, Capra directed seven 1928 feature-length films. His final movie that year was October 1928's "The Power of the Press," about a cub reporter (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) who gets the assignment to cover the murder of the city's attorney general. The young newspaper man stumbles upon a web of organized crime and corrupt local politics. The fourth estate factors in a number of future Capra films. "The Power of the Press" also begins a common theme of the director's by focusing on dishonest politicians.

The magic of "The Power of the Press" is seen in Capra's quick pacing when the action unfolds. He absorbed the Soviet filmmakers's philosophy that an inch of static footage is wasted space. The "fat" has to be excised when the activity on the screen quickens. Capra also had the gift of interjecting humor into certain scenes his audience least expects. "The Power of the Press" follows a familiar pattern of Capra's showing a sincere but inexperienced protagonist getting duped by corrupt people surrounding him, but emerges much the wiser by triumphing over such dishonesty.

The lead in "The Power of the Press" was 19-year-old Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (son of the famous actor), whose presence in the tail-end of 1925's "Stella Dallas" increased his visibility, securing him larger roles. He's exuberant as the rookie reporter Clem Rogers, who's given the large murder story when the paper's editor finds no other reporter in the newsroom so late at night. Clem discovers Jane Atwill (Jobyna Ralston), daughter of the opposition candidate running against the city mayor, hightailing out of a window of the murdered city attorney's house. It's a set-up by the current mayor, knowing if she's a prime suspect, he's golden for a no-opposition election. But Clem digs deeper to discover the corruption inside city hall.

Jobyna Ralston, comedian Harold Lloyd former lead actress for a number of his films, was enjoying success in her free-lancing days She appeared in eleven movies after her final picture with Lloyd, 1927's "Kid Brother," before she received her big role in "The Power of the Press." Another actress in the film was the former Mrs. Chaplin, Mildred Harris, who continued her busy stagecraft playing Marie Weston.

Cub reporter Clem Rogers (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is stuck writing the weather report and death notices. The editor dismisses him when he asks for something meatier. And then one night the district attorney is murdered in his home and all of the other reporters have gone home for the evening. The city desk editor has no choice but to send Clem out to report on the killing.

Clem loses his press pass, so the police won't let him go inside the DA's home. Thus he's forced to just rummage around outside. While doing so, he sees a girl run past him from the house. She was there when the DA was shot and has since been hiding in a closet. A man sitting in a car nearby ID's her as Jane Atwill (Jobyna Rolston), the daughter of the reform candidate for mayor. Clem turns in his story and it is front page news, sure to kill Atwill's chance for election. Jane is cleared of any involvement in the killing, but still the publicity has done its damage. When she comes to Clem and turns on the water works he agrees to help her find who actually killed the district attorney and thus clear her name and reinvigorate her dad's campaign. Complications ensue.

Fairbanks Jr. Is all of 18 so there is an unexpected bonus of watching the kid take a star turn. There are lots of directorial flourishes from young Capra but the story is just minor league material. The charm is in its performances. It's nice to See Harold Lloyd's former leading lady, Jobyna Ralston, in one of her last films, while Chaplin's ex, Mildred Harris, plays a floozy whose insider knowledge of the gang running the city is key to blowing the DA's murder wide open. Mildred Harris is actually two years younger than Ralston but comes off convincingly as the cynical brassy party girl compared to Ralston's young innocent character.

In the middle of the film there is a montage showing the process of printing a newspaper. I don't know how many times that process has been captured on film, but it is historically important to see how a story made its way from the manual typewriter on the reporter's desk all the way to the newspaper boys hawking the headline on the streets. I thought that sequence was fascinating and very well done.

My title about Wheeler Oakman and Boris Karloff comes from this film being made just three years later as "Graft" with Regis Toomey as the cub reporter. In it, Karloff plays the same part of mob muscle that Oakman plays here. He often played gangster roles before Frankenstein. Also, the sound remake has Toomey playing the cub reporter role as slow-witted instead of just being overlooked as Fairbanks is here.

In the Citadel Film series book on the Films Of Frank Capra, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. wrote a letter to the editor saying that while he has enjoyed the great body of Capra work this film The Power Of The Press was not one that rated high in his or Capra's career. I'd tend to agree with that assessment.

Nevertheless The Power Of The Press has a certain charm to it and certainly was worth preserving. Fairbanks really carries this film as a charming if bumptious and slightly obnoxious cub reporter looking for a big scoop. He was all of 19 years old when he did this film.

Fairbanks is hanging around the city room hoping to get a big assignment and make his mark when word comes across that the District Attorney was murdered in his apartment. No one else is around so editor Robert Edeson sends Fairbanks who does get a big scoop when he finds the daughter of the opposition candidate Jobyna Ralston fleeing the scene. It is a big scoop, but it was carefully contrived to shield the real murderer and ruin Jobyna's father at the same time.

The key to all of this is Mildred Harris best known for being one of Charlie Chaplin's wives. Watching Mildred portray your typical 20s flapper make me realize why she got Charlie's mojo going. She really does steal the film whenever she's on screen.

The Power Of The Press is minor league Frank Capra, but still holds up well as entertainment.

Power of the Press, The (1928)

*** (out of 4)

Nice comedy/drama from Capra. Clem Rogers (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) is a cub reporter who gets his big break covering the murder of a District Attorney. One the scene Rogers sees the daughter (Jobyna Ralston) of an upcoming Mayor leaving the house and soon it's all over the news that she was involved in her death. She claims she's innocent so the reporter sets out to see if she really is and soon uncovers a dark political plot. This Columbia film runs a brief 64-minutes and while it doesn't feature anything ground breaking, it does manage to keep you entertained with a smile on your face. The best thing going for the film are the performances with Fairbanks coming off very charming. He's very believable as the rather dumb reporter yet when it's time to be serious he can manage this as well. Fairbanks can play both the comedy as well as the drama and his energy helps keep the film moving. Ralston is also very good as the daughter and the chemistry with Fairbanks comes off very well. Mildred Harris is terrific as the mystery lady who might know a lot more than anyone else and Philo McCullough and Wheeler Oakman turn in fine performances as well. The movie is so short that we really don't get any sort of character development or a well drawn out story but I really don't think the point was to make some sort of grand mystery. The movie was clearly meant to be light entertainment and that's what it is. Capra's direction perfectly handles the lighter moments as well as the romantic moments but he also handles the suspense quite well. There's a terrific scene where Fairbanks plays drunk to try and find some information from a bootlegger that works perfectly and what really happened to the D.A. is good as well. Fans of Capra and Fairbanks will certainly want to check this out even though it's rarely talked about when people discuss either man.