Review of Scandal Sheet

I wouldn't necessarily call this a noir film, since it doesn't have the standard femme fatale that's usually part of the story, nor does a lot of the action take place in dark, secluded places. But the film does hold one's interest, even if we know right from the outset that the killer being sought for the Lonely Hearts murder is right there in front of us the whole time, even helping out with the investigation! That's what's so interesting about it. As editor of the New York Express, Mark Chapman (Broderick Crawford) finds himself continuously boxed in by his fledgling reporter (John Derek), who's hunches about the death of a mystery woman (Rosemary DeCamp) are strengthened by an ever growing list of clues related to the case. The only glitch in the story is that from the suitcase that Steve McCleary (Derek) retrieves from the saloon where Charlie Barnes (Henry O'Neill) left it, the only photo that's produced is the one with Chapman's profile, making him difficult to recognize. But when Barnes first reclaimed it from the pawn shop, there was another picture with a full on view of Chapman with his wife from twenty years ago, where he was more than recognizable, even with a mustache. As the proverbial noose tightens around Chapman's neck, he himself gives away the game by raising his voice in a manner that helps a retired judge recognize it as belonging to the man he married to Charlotte Grant (DeCamp) twenty years earlier. As the curtain falls, George Grant, alias Mark Chapman avoids arrest and prosecution by getting shot when he foolishly pulls a gun with a handful of witnesses present. However the next day's headline in the Express achieves what Chapman set out to do as it's new editor - reach a circulation goal of seven hundred fifty thousand.