Scandal for Sale

I'd like to own a copy of this film, or at least see it. I'm willing to travel to do so, as part of a research project. But I'm not a film historian and haven't contacted any of them yet to see if they can help. I will whenever I find more time for this research project.

Still, if someone could review the film here in 1999, there must be a source somewhere. But where?

I've checked all the usual sources and see no evidence that it was ever released on VHS, much less DVD. I also didn't see an entry for it at Turner Movie Classics.

The film is based on a book by Emile Gauvreau (his name has been misspelled "Gavreau" at times), a newspaper editor in the 1920s. He is listed as a co-author of the film. (I've filled out a correction form for IMDb with the corrected spelling.)

"Scandal for Sale" is a very Pre-Code sort of film, as there's no way they could have made a film this vivid and nasty in its depiction of the newspapers after the tough Production Code was enacted in mid- 1934. Because of the studios' willingness to get down and dirty, this film and "Five Star Final" are more timeless than many later films...and they certainly grab your attention.

When the film begins, there is a very florid murder in which a woman beats two folks to death with a hammer! You don't see it happen but you sure hear the screaming, sound effects and blood! Soon, a man arrives and pretends to be the investigating detective...and the cop watching the scene lets him into the room where the killing just happened. However, this man is actually a sleazy reporter and soon secrets the killer out of the place in order to make headlines and make her a star! The scene where they have her posing with the murder weapon is both shocking and darkly comic. Such is your introduction to the muck- raking journalism championed by Jerry (Charles Bickford). While this latest stunt gets him tossed off the paper, soon he lands on his feet as another local paper is more than welcome to lower their standards for increased profits!

Throughout all this film, you slowly see Jerry lose more and more of what was decent about him. His wife, who once adored him, is reduced to indifference and eventually hatred because of Jerry's actions on the job and inaction at home. In other words, he's seldom home and when he is, he isn't mentally at home. Throughout all this, his best pal and co-worker, Waddy (Pat O'Brien), is by his side...and secretly wishing Jerry's wife had chosen him instead. What's next? See the film!

The script is exciting and awful in a way that keeps your attention. My only regret is that the ending seemed very abrupt and didn't fit into who Jerry was....otherwise I might have even given the film an 8.

Strong stuff from Universal. Good cast and acting. O'Brien's scenes are most memorable. Especially at the end. Story and dialogue are excellent.

Charles Bickford plays the lead in a snappy little precode about a reporter ambitious to make it in the yellow journalism business. The scene opens on a woman who bursts in on her lover and beats her rival to death with a hammer. Pat O'Brien, as reporter Waddell, pretends to be with the D.A.'s office and takes the woman from the scene back to his newspaper's office so that he and reporter Jerry Strong (Charles Bickford) can get the whole story from her. The paper has a great lead story, but the big boss kills it because of the salacious angle. Jerry then quits in anger because he claims the boss wants to run an almanac, not a newspaper and takes his close friend and associate Waddell along for the ride.

Jerry has a nice little house and yard and a loving wife and two kids, but uproots everyone so he can build up a failing paper as a successful scandal sheet in New York City. His wife and kids live in cramped conditions in a small flat and are materially cared for but largely emotionally neglected as Jerry chases and lives his dream, ultimately at great personal cost.

Charles Bickford is largely forgotten today. He had some good leads in the early talkie era such as this one, but was largely relegated to character roles by the end of the 30's. Pat O'Brien is playing the fast-talking best friend in this one, but I could just as easily have seen O'Brien in the lead given his precode roles over at Warner Brothers later on. Keep an eye out for Glenda Farrell, another Warner player, as the murderess with the hammer at the beginning of the film. She only has a few lines here.

Highly recommended as one of the rarely seen non-horror pre-codes from Universal.

You can certainly tell this is pre-code--they say the word "sex" (ooh!) several times, and the opening sequence dwells on the brutality and gore of a love-triangle double-hammer slaying. There are also plenty of satirical and contemptuous snapshots typical of the era and this type of film--the boss who steals other people's ideas and who spends all his time chasing floozies; the floozy who pretends to be a betrayed innocent but turns out to be in a gangster's pocket.

But the raciness of the first third or so of the picture is let down by a meandering, repetitious plot and an increasingly censorious and lugubrious tone. Charles Bickford's triumphs as an editor are contrasted, reproachfully, with his neglect of his wife and children. The marriage is happy--though I'd walk out on any husband who never called me anything but "Mumsie"--so there is no sex angle as far as Bickford is concerned, or anyone else either. Pat O'Brien, as in so many pictures, leans against a lot of door jambs and makes wisecracks out of the side of his mouth, but, as in all his pictures, he...has...no...sex...appeal. When Bickford goes on trial, the courtroom scenes are brief, dull, and completely lacking in suspense.

On the whole, then, I'd say catch the first 20 minutes or so for the atmosphere, but when it starts to slow down, bail out--it's not going to get better.