andynarce

Half of 'The Heart of Justice' consists of a recurrent series of situations after a crime was committed.

Elliot Burgess (Dermot Mulroney) is an aristocratic youngster from the high society of New York, and he assassins a successful author of bestsellers, Austin Blair (Dennis Hopper), after the old man has been having an affair with his teenage sister, Emma Burgess (Jennifer Connelly), in the exclusive club, where all the Burgesses usually spend their summer.

Particularly, Blair's latest novel blatantly portrays all the Burgess in a satirical way, out of the pillow-talk from such an affair.

There also is incest suggested between both siblings as one of the motivations for the crime.

As usual with the 'Neo Noir' productions, 'The Heart of Justice' is almost flawless technically, exuding all the enthusiasm of a 100-percent American genre in plain Manhattan.

Similarly, the cast is awesome; Connelly perfectly takes up the role of the demolishing 'femme fatale' in this story, in this case being a teenage lady, just coming out from high school. This is HER movie, indubitably.

However, 'The Heart of Justice' skids in its approach to the story; the profile and the demeanor of its characters don't correspond to real 'yuppies' from the 'top of the world'.

The movie also fails managing the series of events; the extensive series of flashbacks usually turn uninteresting and awkward.

The success of the Columbo TV series had to do with the clown side of the weird detective; such a story-spoiler-style wouldn't fit in a 'Noir' (or 'Neo Noir') movie though, always so bleak and intellectual.

'The Headline Woman' could have been so much of a movie.

It actually consists of two different stories -practically-, one after the other.

The fast-paced first half is exceptional indeed, little short of the original 'The Front Page'. It consists of a bunch of witty and cynical journalists in the pressroom of the police headquarters of a big town, as they try to sway an officer for bringing them information daily.

There is a gang war between racketeers of gambling, so there is armed action, killings, and even high society parties.

In the second half, though, 'The Headline Woman' swaps half of its characters, leaving us with the ordeals of the stunningly beautiful titular lady, Myrna Van Buren (Heather Angel), being protected by one of the journalists, Bob Grayson (Roger Pryor).

'The Headline Woman' disappoints, because the studio ('Republic Pictures') unfortunately didn't invest in totally rounding it up.

It's evident, that they were enthusiastic though, and it resulted in a B+ (or A-) movie.

'Headline Hunters' is a run of the mill b-class movie of 1955, from the studios of 'Republic Pictures'.

Because its director, William Witney, and the main star (Rod Cameron as Hugh Woodruff) stemmed from the western genre, this movie can't escape from its cliches.

Whereas there is a rough main character (Woodruff) whose friendly feelings prevail and is redeemed in the happy end, there also is a crucial fight in a saloon-like place.

The profession of journalism (still very powerful in the 1950s) is much distorted because of such a premise, nevertheless its simple story is very coherent, even including colorful socio-political twists.

By 1955, 75 percent of households in the USA already had a TV set, and it's clear that this hour-long movie was meant specifically for broadcast.