Samuel Fuller's Belle Époque, etched lovingly in "blood and ink." Guttenberg and Benjamin Franklin are the presiding deities in 1880s New York, brass effigies wobbling on pedestals while newshounds scuttle and collide in the streets below. The pursuit of the almighty headline costs innocent lives, the gruffly principled journalist (Gene Evans) accuses the newspaper of "contempt by publication" and sets out to create his own daily. The elderly snoop (Herbert Hayes), the cartoonist who can sketch on beer foam (Neyle Morrow), the typesetter who can't read (Don Orlando) and the shoeshine tyke (Dee Pollock), everyone watches in awe as a rusty print machine comes to steaming, clanking life. Strolling by to check out the competition, the rival editor (Mary Welch)…

This felt like Samuel Fuller was trying to do a Frank Capra film, and I utterly loved it. Every synopsis of the film goes out of its way to mention that Fuller was--shock--a newspaperman before he was a director, and I can't help but find it utterly charming that he chose to make a film about his former profession not just a glowing, human tribute to the power of the free press and the honor of those working it, but also to give it just a touch of American idealism (or more than just a touch). It almost feels like propaganda, but it seems to be propaganda for the human race overall somehow, some fundamental testament to our decency, deep…

Samuel Fuller's valentine to his past life and love: the newspaper business.

Idealistic journalist Phineas Mitchell (Gene Evans) dreams of a newspaper that sticks to honest reporting about people and events. Thanks to an admiring publisher and his commiserating newspaper friends, he is given the chance of a lifetime: editor of his own newspaper, "The Globe". What ensues is a newspaper war between he and the big paper on Park Row, "The Star".

Very early on, you get the idea that Gene Evans is playing Sam Fuller. This is Sam Fuller's "baby". Everything that Sam was about is captured with Phineas and played with the kid of S.O.B. punch that only someone like Evans can deliver. Fuller could not have…

"He was tried by your paper." "He was tried by jury." "You sprung the trap." "I simply broke the story." "Your story broke his neck!"

Fuller loves newspapers so much that he'd love them even if they weren't a necessary component of fully functional democracies, so much so that this inky drama's total avoidance of speaking truth to power comes off as sincere rather than cynical - to hear this movie tell it, the noblest thing a newspaper ever did was get a guy out of jail who was in jail because of the paper in the first place, and raise money to build the Statue of Liberty. That this comes off as romantic and exciting rather than a cop-out…

Sam Fuller, before he was a hard nosed, director of great B movies, was a copy boy, crime reporter, and journalist in New York. His belief in the importance and power of an independent press was deep and heartfelt. This is actually one of his best films, but he had to make it with his own money because Hollywood wasn't convinced anyone would care about a bunch of journalists at the tail end of the 19th century. They were probably right, but Fuller still wanted to make the movie, and it is tied to actual events, including turf wars, political corruption, and a scandal around the building of the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. As a side note, I…

Celui-là était un peu plus messy. C’est dommage parce que c’est fort probablement le film le plus personnel de Sam Fuller (c’est le seul qu’il a financé de sa poche en tout cas).

En lisant les premiers chapitres de sa bio et tout de suite en voyant la dédicace au début de Park Row (dedicated to AMERICAN JOURNALISM, rien de moins) on comprend que le gars a un amour profond pour la presse et pour ce qu’elle représente dans une démocratie (mon Dieu qu’il aurait été triste durant les 4 dernières années).

Mais malheureusement, c’est comme s’il avait de la difficulté à raconter une histoire prenante à travers tout ce qu’il souhaite montrer sur les premiers balbutiements de Park Row,…

Sam Fuller, before he was a hard nosed, director of great B movies, was a copy boy, crime reporter, and journalist in New York. His belief in the importance and power of an independent press was deep and heartfelt. This is actually one of his best films, but he had to make it with his own money because Hollywood wasn't convinced anyone would care about a bunch of journalists at the tail end of the 19th century. They were probably right, but Fuller still wanted to make the movie, and it is tied to actual events, including turf wars, political corruption, and a scandal around the building of the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. As a side note, I…

Samuel Fuller just absolutely loved and respected journalism and that just bleeds through in this film. It’s kind of refreshing to see such an earnest film even though I doubt some of its idealism and convictions.

Filler directs this film with the rapidity of a news room and everything is unfolding fast and constantly which is how a film about the press should be done. 

Here he captures the Sisyphean plight of real journalism: that it strives to be beholden to nothing but the truth but in a capitalist society can only exist under the influence of someone or something. I laughed a little when Mitchell naively says his paper will be different because it’ll be funded by advertisers and…