I'll tell you why so serious

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

A different way of telling a story

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

With themes borrowed from The Big Clock and for a lot less money, Columbia Pictures delivered a good noir thriller with Broderick Crawford as the editor of a Scandal Sheet type newspaper who kills and then exploits the story in his paper.Neither the killing or the exploitation was planned. Crawford was summoned by someone out of his distant past. Rosemary DeCamp is his estranged wife whom he abandoned 20 years earlier and even took an alias that he's been living under ever since. DeCamp who usually plays mother roles plays a slightly unhinged woman and one can see why Crawford left her. She's very good in a part that is light years from what she normally plays.A sudden burst of lost temper and Crawford kills her and then tries to cover it up. But one of his junior reporters John Derek gets the police call and a hunch and proves homicide if not her identity. Even her lack of identity is exploited as it is referred to as The Lonely Hearts Murder. And Crawford goes all the way with it providing Derek and sob sister columnist Donna Reed don't get too close.Crawford and Derek work well together, they're reunited from All The King's Men where Derek played Crawford's son. There's also a nice performance by Henry O'Neill as a stew bum ex-reporter who also starts investigating. A very offbeat role for him as well as he's usually authority figures of sorts in movies.Samuel Fuller delivered a good noir film from his ensemble cast.

Entertaining noir directed by Phil Karlson, who also did the excellent Kansas City Confidential the same year, and based on a novel by Sam Fuller (and the film can be found in a box set of Fuller films Columbia released a while back). Broderick Crawford stars as the editor-in-chief of a scandal sheet. He runs into an ex-wife whom he dumped years earlier, before changing his name and climbing to his current position. The woman wants to spoil his success, so he kills her. Of course, such a sensational and mysterious murder is just the kind of thing his newspaper covers, and the story, much to Crawford's chagrin, makes his paper more popular than ever. Reporters Donna Reed and John Derek are getting closer and closer to the truth, and Crawford, though he tries to throw them off his scent, is basically trapped by his position. Henry O'Neill is also excellent as the broken-down drunk who first uncovers the secret.

They ought to put a smoking advisory on all these tough newspaper dramas from the '50s and '60s where the stars are lighting up all the time--even prim DONNA REED as a girl disgusted with the tabloid SCANDAL SHEET she works for, is smoking most of the time, along with BRODERICK CRAWFORD and JOHN DEREK and most of the male supporting cast, including HARRY MORGAN with a thick cigar in his mouth.The film is a crisp melodrama from Columbia about an editor (Crawford) who accidentally kills his wife (ROSEMARY DeCAMP) during a heated argument. His own staff crime reporter (JOHN DEREK) is soon hot on the trail of the woman's murderer and therein lies the nub of the plot.Donna Reed is less sweet than usual as a tough minded newspaper reporter in love with Derek. Derek is just okay as the reporter determined to find the killer. Broderick Crawford walks off with most of the acting honors as the guilty man who finds himself being investigated by his own ace reporters.Well written with a good climactic scene as the noose tightens around Crawford's neck. Summing up: Clever film noir is well worth watching.

Broderick Crawford stars in this exciting film noir from 1952..Fast paced & keeps viewer in suspense till the end..Excellent cast, including Crawford, handsome John Derek, intelligent beautiful, Donna Reed.and Harry Morgan..However..ROSEMARY DeCAMP, is outstanding in her brief but important scenes.. This is unlike her other screen work..Rosemary ,for me, steals the show!.Worth seeing ..Thanks again to TCM for showing this today on Broderick Crawfords day a fine, underrated actor . I started watching @ 20 minutes after film began ( I don't usually do this)and I was "hooked" as I saw Rosemary DeCamps close up at rally for "forlorn lovers" DeCamp recognizes Crawford ,her former husband, who has now changed his name and persona.. I stopped everything and could not stop watching till the end I wont tell you what happens.I hope TCM shows again soon so I can view the scenes I missed at the beginning