Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 1, 1994 TAG: 9404020004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT W. BUTLER KANSAS CITY STAR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Don't buy that, huh? Well, try this description: They're self-serving, conscienceless egomaniacs perfectly willing to subvert the truth for their own aggrandizement.
Maybe that's a bit extreme, too. OK, then, newspaper people are just plain folks doing jobs that range from the glamorous to the grungy and trying - with only intermittent success - to balance their personal needs against those of the greater good.
Whatever your take on the ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate, the movies can give you a character who pretty much proves your point. Ron Howard's new film ``The Paper'' is only the latest movie look at a profession that is the subject of ridicule, admiration, envy and contempt.
America's view of newspaper people has varied decade by decade and seems to be determined, at least in part, by the prevailing attitudes of our society at any given time.
For example, in the '30s and '40s the newspaper reporter often was viewed as an unabashedly romantic figure doing exciting work.
Here's how some prominent movies have helped to shape the public image of newspapering people:
``It Happened One Night'' (1934): Clark Gable set the tone for dozens of other movie reporters when he portrayed Peter Warne, who befriends an heiress (Claudette Colbert) running away from her rich father. In exchange for his protection and guidance during her cross-country flight, Warne will get the exclusive rights to her story, thus putting him back in the good graces of his angry editor.
Under Frank Capra's direction, ``It Happened One Night'' concentrated on screwball comedy rather than the news business. Nonetheless, the public so embraced Gable's embodiment of a reporter - independent, gruffly charming, wisecracking, worldly in a poorly paid sort of way - that the character became almost a cliche. Gable ended up playing essentially the same guy 25 years later in ``Teacher's Pet'' opposite Doris Day.
``Foreign Correspondent'' (1940): The notion of a newspaper reporter's life as one of cliff-hanging excitement was nurtured by films like this Alfred Hitchcock effort. Joel MacRae plays a reporter (actually, not a very good one) who unravels an international plot to scuttle a peace process that could prevent World War II.
Of course, MacRae's character is so wrapped up in murders, chases and other intrigue that he never sits down to write a story. This was OK with moviegoers. Watching a guy typing is boring. It was more fun to think of reporters as a combination of cop and spy.
``The Front Page'' (1931); ``His Girl Friday'' (1940); ``The Front Page'' (1974): More than any other newspaper yarn, ``The Front Page'' molded public opinion about what newspapering was all about.
Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur based their 1928 Broadway hit on their own journalism experiences. The result was a hilarious comedy about an aggressive reporter named Hildy Johnson who is desperate to get away from his manipulative editor, Walter Burns, but agrees to stick around to cover the execution of a convicted murderer who may have been framed.
Audiences took home two inescapable sensations from ``The Front Page.'' First, there was its breathless, breakneck pace, with reporters racing around and talking at the speed of sound. Second, there was the story's atmosphere of good-natured cynicism. Reporters were at war with their editors, furiously competitive with one another and utterly contemptuous of authority figures such as police and politicians, who were considered corrupt unless proven otherwise.
The original movie version of ``The Front Page'' starred Pat O'Brien as Hildy and Adolph Menjou as the utterly amoral Walter; it was remade 40 years later with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau taking on the roles.
The best version, though, was ``His Girl Friday,'' in which Hildy became a woman (Rosalind Russell) and Walter (Cary Grant) was not only her editing nemesis, but also her ex-husband. Audiences got the requisite newspaper cliches, plus a memorable slice of the battle between the sexes.
``Citizen Kane'' (1940): Part of the allure of the newspaper movie in the '30s and '40s may have had something to do with reporters of that era usually being working-class types, lacking college educations and living on peanut wages, but nonetheless consumed by a competitive spirit and the excitement of the chase. For Americans struggling through the Great Depression, reporters represented realistic role models; they were of the people.
Although it's widely regarded as the greatest American film ever, Orson Welles' ``Citizen Kane'' isn't really a newspaper movie because it's not about the poor slobs who work a paper, but rather about the multimillionaire who owns one.
However, Welles' view of the fictional Charles Foster Kane (roughly based on real-life newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst) would be echoed in later films in which the media and its pursuit of truth is manipulated by greedy individuals for their own selfish ends.
``Ace in the Hole'' (1951): A distinctly cynical view of journalists dominates this drama from director Billy Wilder.
Kirk Douglas plays a self-serving reporter who is the first on the scene at a mine disaster. He establishes contact with a miner who has been buried alive, becoming the man's sole contact with the outside world.
The reporter uses his day-by-day reports on the miner's fate to fuel his own career; he even delays the rescue effort, risking the victim's life in an effort to maximize his own time on the nation's front pages.
``30'' (1959): Jack Webb (of ``Dragnet'' fame) starred in and directed this newsroom drama, which clearly inspired Ron Howard's new film, ``The Paper.''
It's set in a big city newsroom on a busy night when the personal and professional crises faced by reporters and editors come to a head. There's lots of gruff talk, running around and sappy moments as the various employees come to grips with the loss of a son, the adoption of a little boy, losing a big bet and other concerns, including the fate of a child who has been swept into one of the city's storm sewers.
``All the President's Men'' (1976): Reporters never looked better than in this Oscar-winning story of how Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered the Watergate affair that led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.
The film basically was a thriller and a mystery, concentrating exclusively on the pair's investigative reporting; their private lives weren't addressed at all, and as a result they came off as selfless seekers of the truth.
It also helped that Woodward and Bernstein were played by the charismatic Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. Small wonder that journalism schools across the nation reported huge increases in enrollment in the wake of this movie.
``Absence of Malice'' (1981): By the time this drama came out, Watergate was far behind us and Ronald Reagan was in the White House. The ``liberal press'' was a lightning rod for conservative criticism; thus this cautionary tale of how a career-conscious newspaper reporter (Sally Field) becomes the pawn of an unscrupulous DA investigating organized crime.
Using files leaked to her by the prosecutor, she writes a series of stories linking an innocent building contractor (Paul Newman) to mob activities.
Newspaper movies continue to pop up from time to time. In the Coen Brothers' ``The Hudsucker Proxy,'' opening this month, Jennifer Jason Leigh portrays a tough-talking reporter patterned after the type created by Jean Arthur in ``Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' and Rosalind Russell in ``His Girl Friday.''
Coming up this spring is yet another newspaper flick, ``I Love Trouble,'' in which Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts play journalists sharing feuding and funning.
But this could be the last gasp of the newspaper movie. The reason is clear: In the brave new world of high technology, the news business is changing shape, and much of the scruffy newspaper glamour is gone. In the comic books, Clark Kent no longer works for the fictional Daily Planet - nowadays he's a TV reporter.
In the future we'll probably be seeing a lot less of ``The Front Page'' and a lot more of ``Broadcast News.''
by CNB