Have You Seen It?

United States of America; 20^th Century-Fox; written and directed by Richard Brooks; produced by Sol C. Siegel. Starring Humphrey Bogart (Ed Hutcheson), Kim Hunter (Nora Hutcheson), and Ethel Barrymore (Margaret Garrison).

Richard Brooks’s Deadline-USA is a socially conscious newspaper film that gives us memorable dialogue that is fast, witty, and knowing. It has two intertwined plotlines: A mob boss (Martin Gabel) who is slickly evading the legal authorities has evidence building against him at a newspaper of journalistic integrity called The Day; meanwhile, The Day is in the process of being sold to a competing, more commercial, and more popular newspaper, The Standard.

Humphrey Bogart plays Ed Hutcheson, the managing editor of The Day. He demands much of his staff, and they are dedicated to his journalistic standards. “I want facts that won’t bounce,” he tells one of his reporters when trying to get the details for a story.

When Hutcheson is asked by one of his staff why The Day is being sold, he says, “Money. That’s usually why something is sold, isn’t it? The heirs and the lawyers are up in the dome waiting to explain the nature of the crime with facts, figures . . . and falsehoods.”

Bogart’s character has a life outside of the newspaper, but just barely. Just as he is about to lose the newspaper to The Standard, he tries to address another area of his life: his relationship with his ex-wife Nora (Kim Hunter) who he still loves. Although this subplot adds a dimension to Ed Hutcheson’s background, it doesn’t deter our understanding of his character: his heart and head belong to the newspaper.

The screenplay in Deadline-USA is memorable for its worldly wit that is sometimes mixed with an idealism that supports the press as a social good, and it is entertaining throughout its length. There is an especially good scene where the staff of The Day holds a funeral for the newspaper at a local bar that perfectly illustrates their sense of humor and their worldview.

Another element that contributes to the film’s success is the warm, supportive, and lighthearted relationship between Ed Hutcheson and Mrs. Garrison (Ethel Barrymore), the wife of the deceased founder of The Day. It rings true with a sense of mutual philosophies shared over many years.

The direction by Richard Brooks keeps the story moving with an urgency that matches the experience of struggling to meet a deadline. It is this quality that helps ensure the film’s fast pace.

Richard Brooks would tackle social issues throughout his film career (juvenile delinquency in Blackboard Jungle; the psycho-emotional formation of unrepentant killers in In Cold Blood; the corruption of Christian evangelicalism by a con man in Elmer Gantry). Political corruption by the mob and sinking journalistic standards (or the avoidance of) are two of the issues he addresses here, but the film avoids being heavy-handed. This is first and foremost a bristling entertainment, although one with a point to make.

In the end, Deadline-USA works because of memorable dialogue and urgent direction. In a movie where the characters struggle with the worldly realities threatening to bring them down, a solitary flicker of idealism remains: the press as a social good.