A Suprema Cartada

This movie was a great reinactment of how newspapers changed their formats from pure journalism to sensationalism just after World War I. Edward G. Robinson, in one of his best unknown roles, starts his own N.Y. tabloid by becoming partners with a gangster who finances everything. The paper crusades against the underworld and soon enough the unholy partners are at conflict. A superp film that gives a better insight of the early newspaper business than "Citizen Kane"(Not saying its better than the Orsen Welles classic).Definatly a high recomendation; insight, drama, love, and guns.

All set up for a rip-roaring hour and a quarter, with Edward G. as the sassy newshound back from the trenches, in partnership with gangster Edward Arnold, surely two of the very greatest. Just watch Robinson outwit Arnold in a poker game for the paper. You know it won't end well. In tow are Laraine Day, who loves the former, as does naïve William T. Orr, an aspiring newspaperman who still has all his ideals intact.

It goes more or less as you'd expect, but with MGM glitz and taste rather than Warners energy. Which means it's 20 minutes too long, and with a weird drawn-out ending tacked on for no particularly good reason, and you go away after 95 minutes feeling less than satisfied. Someone shudda told those guys at MGM, class ain't everything.

I saw this movie over twenty years ago, but it remains somewhat more memorable for the speed and sureness of it's directing and acting, particularly the dynamite pairing (I believe the only time it happened) of Robinson and Arnold. Theirs, as it turns out, is an unholy partnership, with Arnold slowly realizing that his control of a major newspaper would give his criminal economic power a tremendous boost, and Robinson slowly realizing the responsibility of a newspaper is more than just ballyhoo and gossip (would that a certain current newspaper tycoon would learn this - but he won't). Inevitably the partnership ends violently, with Robinson left in a very, very peculiar position of knowing too well who killed his partner.

Unfortunately, Mervyn LeRoy's film was smothered in 1941 by Orson Welles' first masterpiece (and greatest film?) CITIZEN KANE. But though Kane does show how a newspaper empire is built (and almost lost) by Kane, that film is actually a look at a flawed "great man", and the problem of how people remember the man's actions. This space is not adequate to go into the plot of KANE (or it's technical brilliance), but one should only note that Charles Foster Kane's ego also involves grasping at a political career aimed at the White House, marrying two women (and losing both of their love for him), building an opera house and failing to control public views on culture, and building a modern version of a pyramid as a final monument to that ego. The many sides of the character of Charley Kane keep our attention with repeated viewings, but such a depth is not found in LeRoy's film. This does not dismiss the LeRoy film as a failure, but relegates it to an entertaining movie only.

The interesting thing is that UNHOLY PARTNERS has (like KANE) a basis in fact. KANE is based (whether Welles admitted it or not) on the life of William Randolph Hearst, with his political interests and his social pretensions. And yes, Susan Alexander is a nasty swipe at poor Marion Davies. But in UNHOLY PARTNERS, the newspaper is based on THE NEW YORK MIRROR, a tabloid that popped up in the 1920s, and lasted into the 1960s (I remember reading it's Sunday comic sections in my first eight years). The newspaper was edited by Phillip Payne, who loved spreading scandalous stories to sell his paper. He also enjoyed ballyhoo - stories about aviators, channel swimmers, murder cases, baseball and football stars, actors and actresses - you did not read THE MIRROR to get an intelligent political viewpoint. He is not known for having any criminal partner, but the Arnold character is clearly based on Arnold Rothstein, the man who fixed the 1919 World Series, and was known as "the big bankroll" being the contact man between Wall Street and the underworld. In 1928 Rothstein was shot to death in a hotel elevator, and the crime was never solved. That same year, like Robinson's character, Payne was killed when a plane he was flying across the Atlantic crashed into it.

Unholy Partners (1941)

*** (out of 4)

After WW1 newspaperman Bruce Corey (Edward G. Robinson) goes back to his job to try and pitch a job to his boss but he's not interested in the new ideas. In order to start his own paper, Corey starts a partnership with notorious gangster Merrill Lambert (Edward Arnold) and soon he lives to regret it. UNHOLY PARTNERS is a good little melodrama from MGM that manages to get two great actors in strong roles, although I will admit there are some pretty big flaws throughout the picture. The biggest flaw is the entire conflict of interest. I mean, Robinson's character should have known that he wouldn't be able to report certain illegal activities that Lambert is doing so when he starts doing so and the clash happens, the Robinson character seems shocked or pig-headed but what did he expect? Why the character never thought about this before making the deal is certainly a flaw in the writing but it's certainly not big enough to where it destroys the film. The best thing is without question the performances by the two leads. I'm sure reading the plot description that many would think Robinson would be playing the gangster but he was also great at playing the "good" guys just as much as the bad ones. He's quite believable in the part and I really liked the energy he brought the character. Arnold, often a good guy, really gets to shine here as the dangerous mobster and he's quite threatening. Laraine Day makes for a good love interest as does Gail Fenton. William T. Orr plays Robinson's "young" version and is good as well. The film contains a few good twists along the way, some good action, a couple nice laughs and best of all are the performances. UNHOLY PARTNERS isn't a lost classic but if you're a fan of the stars then it's worth watching.

Fresh from World War I, Edward G. Robinson has all kinds of new ideas about his chosen profession of journalism. But his old newspaper won't see things his way. Not discouraged, but needing cash he gets it from Edward Arnold a gangster with whom he becomes Unholy Partners with.

Although Arnold is at first a silent partner and gives Robinson a free hand with the paper, it's not a partnership that in any way can last. Robinson, and more particularly reporter William T. Orr, starts looking into the activities of Arnold's friends and later Arnold. And then Orr becomes interested in Laraine Day who is a nightclub singer that Arnold has taken a kind of lease out on.

The whole film builds toward the inevitable showdown of Arnold and Robinson and the two really dominate the film, the other players barely getting any innings in their performances. Arnold is a very careful man in maintaining a respectable front and he sees the possibilities in controlling a large media outlet. Not unlike that other Arnold film character from 1941, D.B. Norton from Meet John Doe.

Charles Dingle who is a favorite character actor of mine is in Unholy Partners. But he's in a very subdued role who Arnold has under his thumb by controlling Dingle's gambling debts. Dingle's not at all the arrogant and pompous man he usually plays. And I miss that.

Robinson and Arnold make quite a good pair of matched adversaries. Unholy Partners showed they should have done more work together.