DEADLINE USA (1952) (B) - Humphrey Bogart is fantastic as a beta version of Ben Bradlee, a gruff editor rallying his news staff in the face of an uphill challenge. Bogart is Ed Hutcheson, a hard-nosed newsman whose paper, the Day, is chasing a big story about corruption while the staff has been informed by the family owning the paper that the operation will close in three days.
Hutcheson's first thought is that he will finally be free from the journalistic rat race and will have time to win back his estranged wife, Nora (Kim Hunter). But he's got ink in his veins, and when one of his reporters gets beat up by mobsters, he is determined to nail down the story before the Day calls it a night.
Legendary writer Richard Brooks ("Key Largo," "Elmer Gantry," "In Cold Blood," "Blackboard Jungle") pens a zippy script that captures the jangly repartee of a classic newsroom. It is almost heartbreaking, well into the 21st century's decline of newspapers, to hear an editor back then lament the decay of the news game. Bogie gets to sink his choppers into this speech ripping on the readers:
It's not enough any more to give 'em just news. They want comics, contests, puzzles. They want to know how to bake a cake, win friends, and influence the future. Ergo, horoscopes, tips on the horses, interpretation of dreams so they can win on the numbers lottery. And, if they accidentally stumble on the first page... news!He is surrounded by a strong cast, which also includes Ethel Barrymore as the out-voted family matriarch who has a winning rapport with Hutcheson; Hunter as the conflicted news widow; and Audrey Christie as a scrappy gal reporter. Ah, those good ol' days of the newspaper game.
LE NOTTI BLANCHE (1957) (B) - Marcello Mastroianni flashes an awkward charm as Mario, a man new to the town of Livorno who meets a shy young woman looking forlorn on a bridge. Natalia (Maria Schell) is yearning for another man, whom she met a year ago and with whom she hopes to reunite.
Luchino Visconti mixes new wave realism with claustrophobic sets to create a suffocating world of longing and heartache. Natalia is kept under nun-like conditions, with her skirt literally pinned to that of one of the old ladies she lives with. She resists Mario's advances because she pines for a man who is unlikely to return. (We see their courtship in flashbacks.)
Mastroianni and Schell dance a tender pas de deux. Mario rejects the advances of another woman, snubbing the sure thing in favor of the fantasy of rescuing the weepy wounded bird.
Visconti, a neorealist auteur, adapted the story from Fyodor Dostoyevski's "White Nights." (His other adaptations include "The Stranger" and "Death in Venice.") The centerpiece here -- and presumably the reason the film ranks high in the canon -- is a jaunt to a bohemian dance club where the couple join the hipsters in a modern jig to a classic American blues-rock song. What the movie lacks in enduring drama it makes up for in archival treasures.
BONUS TRACK
The dance scene featuring Bill Haley and the Comets' "Thirteen Women":
And how about a cover version by the Fuzztones?
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