Scandal Sheet

George Bancroft is the ruthless editor of a scandal oriented newspaper. He's oblivious to his lovely, "loving" wife's afternoon and evening sessions with a pickled puss lover (Kay Francis and Clive Brook). Kay asks Clive for 24 Hours (!) (they co-starred in a movie with that title in '31) to decide whether or not to run off to Europe with him. In a key scene one sees the revulsion for Bancroft's work ethic -- it has left her cold and unloving. Brook himself becomes a victim of Bancroft's paper and not to spoil the ending, I'll leave it there. It's an absorbing and well-performed drama. Francis registers well here, although the ending leaves us wondering whatever happened to her.

I saw "The Scandal Sheet" (1952) starring Broderick Crawford before seeing this one. I don't like seeing remakes before seeing the original, but in this case there was no harm done. Though similar, they differed enough to make "Scandal Sheet" (1931) like watching a totally different movie.

"Scandal Sheet" (1931) is about a hardcore newspaperman. Mark Flint (George Bancroft) was the editor of a burgeoning New York rag and he was the reason for its recent success. He didn't let anything get in the way of him printing a news story--not personal relationships, personal feelings, or anything else. When it came to news he was as cold as ice. His heart and mind couldn't be budged.

His code and principles would be severely tested when his wife became the subject of a salacious news story. His wife, Edith Flint (Kay Francis), was photographed in the home of a banker named Noel Adams (Clive Brook). Noel was being tailed by reporters because his bank was the subject of a shady deal gone wrong. Edith just so happened to be careless enough to be spotted there.

When the publisher of the paper, Franklin (Gilbert Emery), brought the photo and the information about Edith to Mark's attention he had the first real test of his career. Print this salacious story or bury it.

I thought "Scandal" did a wonderful job even setting up the drama. It's always riveting when the drama involves the morals of a principled person: will they compromise or won't they? It helped that "Scandal" had a villain so-to-speak as well. No one likes a cheat and his wife was just that. How could he punish his wife, and keep his principles as a newspaperman, and keep his reputation clean? Or is that even possible? It was well worth watching to find out and the ending didn't disappoint.

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Gruff Mark Flint (George Bancroft) is editor of the "scandal sheet", The Bulletin. He identifies as a "newspaper man", with the newspaper first and foremost and the humanity part playing second fiddle. He steals photos of a young man who committed suicide to accentuate the story he is running on the event, and he refused to not print a story about a school principal being the brother of a famous criminal even though that story will probably ruin the principal as people believed in eugenics a lot more in those days. He says he prints the news always, and if it ruins a person's life that is not his problem.

Meanwhile his wife Edith (Kay Francis) is having an affair with their mutual friend, the bank president Noel Adams (Clive Brooks). Adams comes to tell Edith that he is leaving town and going on an ocean voyage because he realizes she will never leave Mark because she does not want to hurt him. Mark is none the wiser even though Edith is always telling him he is heartless to run the kinds of stories that he does and seems indifferent to him. But then Adams' bank is involved in a scandal and so Flint is keeping close watch on Adams all of a sudden. Maybe he will not like what he finds out. How does this turn out? Watch and find out.

It seems that Edith and Noel are taking lots of chances here. Noel shows up at their apartment while Mark is at work and Edith runs out to greet him like a school girl in love. She sure does talk loudly and take chances with her maid just in the next room. Bancroft is towards the end of his acting heyday here. His film image as tough guy got him to believing his own press and being pegged as difficult just as lots of fresher more cooperative faces arrived in Hollywood. Also note character actor Regis Toomey as action reporter Regan. He has some good scenes, especially in the beginning when he shows what somebody has to go through to stay gainfully employed at The Bulletin.

What begins as a conventional Unfaithful Wife Story evolves into something more fascinating, as we see a ruthless editor of a major city newspaper tread on too many toes and get some comeuppance. There is some wonderful set work at play in this "B" film, with a fashionable ultra-mod apartment turned out as Kay's Love Nest with a naughty banker who offers whiskey in bottles the size of a glass brick, as well as some zippy tracking shots in a newspaper office setting a fast pace of hustle and rush.

From the beginning, the viewer eavesdrops on cynical reporters attempting to bribe the little brother of a recent suicide, simultaneously offering the Mother cold cash for the dead boy's verse; editor George Bancroft sets the tone here as a heartless man who claims that no matter who the story damages--if it sells papers, it's news. His wife, Kay Francis, sits at home, draping various parts of her body with eye-catching fashion, and in one scene, other action front and center, there is some pre-code semi-nudity with mirrors catching the sort of undressing censored just three years later.

But it is the plot that, despite the soapy melodrama, rises above its origins, and provides no little suspense--with an odd, seemingly tacked-on ending, probably to please the money men. An additional incentive to early film fans is the rich casting of secondary players--Irving Bacon, Sid Saylor, Vince Barnett, Robert Parish, and even the man that become The Weenie King in The Palm Beach Story--Robert Dudley.

Newspaper editor George Bancroft (Flint) is a nasty piece of work. He will print anything that he deems newsworthy regardless of the effects on those concerned and their families. He is even approached by a kind-hearted old headmaster to hold back a story but Bancroft is having none of it. His wife, Kay Francis (Edith), is having an affair with banker Clive Brook (Adams) and debating whether or not to elope with him. Her decision will influence the course of this film.

The film is ok if a little dull but picks up at the end once Bancroft takes matters into his hands. However, the final scenes are ridiculous. There is some funny dialogue between Bancroft and Brook but I'm afraid we just can't sympathize with Bancroft and his monotone voice. He's not a role model to attach your emotions to and this is why the ending is particularly annoying.

I've read that Bancroft regarded himself as something pretty special in real life. In this film, his news hierarchy to present to the public has stories about newspapermen allocated to page 3. They are not headline material. Well, he makes sure he promotes himself to headline status. That's total dedication for you. What a big-head!