Power of the Press

You know, it sure seems that the more films I see from the 1930s & 40s, the more I'm becoming convinced that this so-called "Golden Age" of movies was, in fact, not as "golden" as some people would like to imagine it to be.

Yes. I'll agree that there were certainly some real gems from that particular era of film-making - But, what I'm beginning to discover is that for every precious gem that is so fondly remembered, there remains a literal quarry full of nothing but ordinary stones and pebbles that would best be ground up into gravel.

In other words - The mediocre & forgettable b-movies of those days of yesteryear definitely out-number the gold by, at least, 10 to 1. I ain't kidding here.

Power Of The Press was, in its own way, something of a dramatic social commentary. Its story concerned the political machinery behind honest, fair-minded news-reporting, as opposed to the denial of freedom of speech through selling the gullible public narrow-minded bias and manipulative propaganda.

Unfortunately, this rather run-of-the-mill picture lacked conviction and a substantial enough bite to its seemingly dire message.

I suppose that a lot of this picture's mediocrity could be rightfully blamed on the "Hayes Code" (which was in full-force at the time). This vicious, self-righteous censor board trampled on hundreds of well-meaning movies from this era and, pretty much, reduced them to their pitiful toothless state.

Power Of The Press (which had a running time of only 64 minutes) was directed by Lew Landers who churned out dozens of low-budget movies throughout the 1930s & 40s.

Landers died in 1962 at the age of 61.

I hate movies like this because it could have been made today. So totally relevant.

Power of the Press is from 1943, directed by Lew Landers with a story by the great director Sam Fuller.

During WWII, the publisher of the isolationist tabloid, New York Gazette, is murdered as he was making an announcement about a change in the paper's policy and his intent to support the US in the war.

The publisher has left his interest in the paper, a controlling percentage, to Ulysses Brand, a friend who is a small town paper editor. He comes up against Otto Kruger as the managing editor. One reviewer commented that he might as well wear a swastika on his arm. He's aided and abetted by Victor Jory.

This film has been called Capraesque. It's overly preachy with a lot of propaganda. In Capra's hands, it would have been better. The cast is good, with Lee Tracy and Gloria Dickson as the publisher's secretary. She is 25 here, but a very mature looking leading lady. Sadly she died two years later in a fire.

What it has going for it is the prediction of fake news, Fox and the Murdochs. Frightening.

"Power of the Press" is so packed with patriotic pronouncements that any semblance of plot -- and the story isn't all that bad -- gets lost. We know that a free press is vital to a free country; no need to keep drumming it into our thick skulls. The tale starts with the murder of a New York newspaper publisher who bequeaths his controlling interest in the Gazette to an idealistic small-town editor, Scattergood Baines...uh, sorry... Guy Kibbee. Otto Kruger as the paper's other publisher (who seems, in 1943, to be campaigning for Hitler) turns to his favorite hit man, the Shadow...uh, sorry, Victor Jory...to maintain control. Lew Landers directs the proceedings in Capraesque style without much of Capra's spark. If a savvy script editor had cut some of the blathering, this might have been a decent thriller.

In this movie written by Samuel Fuller, New York newspaper publisher Minor Watson realizes his isolationist editorial policy is wrong. He is about to change everything about the way he runs his paper..... and is killed, quite obviously by people working for the new publisher, Otto Kruger. But his secretary, Gloria Dickson, shows up in the office of Guy Kibbee, editor, publisher, and everything but press operator of a tiny rural paper, with instructions to take over the big paper and make things right. Kibbee has a lot of opposition, especially from managing editor Lee Tracy, whose attitude is to accuse today and retract tomorrow if necessary; just get the big, circulation-boosting headlines! Kibbee's idea of getting as many facts as possible, especially about Larry Parks, accused of murdering Watson, seems old-fashioned and weak.

Given the news of the past few years, my ear pricked up when Kibbee referred to "fake news". He -- or Fuller -- didn't mean it in the sense of some alternate offering of facts. Fuller was a newspaperman himself, straight out of Park Row and a fan of full-blooded and outright bloody journalism. But he believed in getting his facts straight, and knew that the strength of this country lies not in slogans or strong men, or money, but in ordinary people who when told the truth understand it, and do the right thing.

The movie itself was just ok, with below avg acting, but the movie's message is excellent. Amazing, issues of the 40s are still issues in 2020. I think this movie should be a requirement for every journalist in school and for all the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, ABC and NBC anchors, editors and owners.