Front Page Story (1954) User Reviews

Familiar faces from the 1950s British movies

[howardmorley · 6/10 · 16 July 2017]

The above only reviewer succinctly identifies the main plot elements of this film.My review is therefore concerned with more abstract matters.I saw "Front Page Story" for the first time tonight on Youtube.com which surprised me as I thought I had seen most of the popular films from this era.I always like recognising familiar actors from other films so these were the ones I recognised.From "A Night to Remember(1958): Michael Goodliffe, as designer Thomas Andrews, Joseph Tomelty as ship's doctor Dr O'Loughlin and in a minor role the first officer of the "Californian" although I cannot recall his real name but he also appeared with Jack Hawkins in "Angels One -Five (1952) and with Michael Redgrave/Richard Todd in "The Dam Busters (1955) as a radio officer.

The writer of the screenplay was evidently an admirer of Shakespeare when during a trial scene he paraphrases Portia's "The quality of mercy.." speech from "The Merchant of Venice" and I noticed another Shakespearean quote later which I think was from Julius Caeser about "the good that men do..." said by Mark Anthony as an epitaph.Jack Hawkins unwisely forgets about his wife's need for companionship by reneging on a promise to take her on a holiday to Paris despite several of his journalist colleagues exhorting him to take the break.As it turned out it saved his life as the plane crashed after taking off from Northolt (which is an RAF aerodrome now, not a civilian one) familiar to me as I used to live in Northwood Middlesex which is near.Jenny Jones a child actress played her part as the grieving daughter of her mother who dies in the film.

The moral I suppose is don't become a workaholic as this can produce psychological problems and stresses in a marriage.Average I rated it 6/10.

The Fourth Estate.

[brogmiller · 6/10 · 10 March 2022]

Never a dull moment in the life of tabloid editor Grant. He has the unenviable task of telling a young girl that she is now an orphan, he assists in helping the police to arrest a defecting nuclear scientist and if that weren't enough he learns that his neglected wife has not only been unfaithful with one of this staff but is on the passenger list of a plane that has crashed.

By far the most interesting episode however is that which involves the excellent Michael Goodliffe as an idealistic and rather self-righteous reporter who is sent by Grant to cover a mercy killing trial in which the 'accused is' played by Eva Bartok. Although Miss Bartok's performance is wordless it is the most telling.

Although this piece confronts a few moral issues, Gordon Parry's direction lacks an edge and the whole enterprise is somewhat pedestrian. It is the character of Grant that holds the whole film together and requires an actor of presence and perceived moral fibre who also possesses the common touch. Step forward the marvellous Jack Hawkins.

It is unlikely however that Grant's impassioned plea on behalf of the 'honest hack' will find a sympathetic ear in these times when we have a Press that habitually exercises power without responsibility.

Jack Hawkins commands the screen.

[davidallen-84122 · 8/10 · 11 May 2021]

I have always felt you can't go wrong with a Jack Hawkins film and this very pleasing very British offering really proves my point as he leads and shines above a competent group of familiar players. It's all very early 1950's ; an era I look back on with nostalgia even though I was just a child. The men all wear hats and coats and the women all wear hats,coats,gloves and furs. Everyone smokes all over the place which may turn people off these days but it was very sophisticated at the time and we were oblivious to the harm it might do. Great scenes of post-war London are a nice added touch. The various story-lines have already been explained and they are smoothly inter-woven giving us a real feel for the frenetic environment of a newspaper office. It's mostly credible and the sort of film you can enjoy watching repeatedly.

A Day In The Life

[boblipton · 6/10 · 3 October 2019]

Jack Hawkins is the workaholic city editor of a Fleet Street newspaper. His wife, Elizabeth Allan, wants the two of them to go on a vacation, but he goes into work, while she decides to leave him. In the course of the day, four stories that will appear in the paper that night appear on the screen. One is a scientist who, as a matter of conscience, slips atomic secrets to an unnamed foreign spy. Another is a woman acquitted of murder, who is wandering the streets, regaining her equanimity, until two of Hawkins' reporters confront her, and she rushes into the street, to be killed. A third is five children whose mother has just died in surgery. The last is the plane Miss Allan was taking crashing on takeoff, with everyone killed.

These all come together in a confrontation between Goodliffe and Hawkins, as an indictment and defense of the newspaper industry itself, with Goodliffe drunken and maudlin over his guilt, and Hawkins, sober and grieving. I found it a little neat, but that's an issue I recently have been confronting in several "slice of life" movies: the illusion that a slice can stand in for the entire life life and that everything can be wrapped up in 90 minutes; in fact, I thought a saw a different ending that neatly ended two of the stories, with Hawkins and wife Elizabeth Allan adopting the newly orphaned children. Perhaps the writers saw that and rejected it as too neat; perhaps it was lost somewhere further down the production as requiring an additional five minutes; or perhaps it was a sop to people like me, who realize that life doesn't stop when THE END appears on the screen and this particular universe ends.

1954 British quality fleet street drama - nice print on YouTube

[phlbrq58 · 6/10 · 29 January 2019]

Jack Hawkins was a solid actor who carries this in star fashion. I'm a fan of this era of britfilm. I'd move it to 7 but dated plot elements make it a reccommendation. only for 50's enthusiasts.

Life at Fleet Street an ordinary day when everything happens

[clanciai · 10/10 · 30 January 2019]

This is a wonderful film of almost documentary character showing the life at a newspaper editorial office with Jack Hawkins in charge, happening to all kinds of incidents that have to be followed up and covered, an ordinary day's work for an editor, and it is not easy. There are several very different stories that develop at the same time with that in common that none of them turns out as expected. A young widow (Eva Bartok) is at the Old Bailey charged with murder of her husband, who was dying anyway - it appears to have been some kind of a killing by mercy. A young mother with five kids is lying at the hospital on the operation table with no certain outcome of the operation. A scientist in a high position of nuclear physics is eager to have his message spread by the newspaper to the world while he conveys atomic secrets to the enemy. And Jack Hawkins' wife is leaving him after having been left alone too much.

So there are four different dramas (at least) on the hands of the editorial, and they keep developing to major crises all four of them. The most interesting drama is that of the widow Eva Bartok. Jack Hawkins puts his most critical journalist Michael Goodliffe on the case, which leads to a dramatic climax after everything has gone wrong, questioning for serious the ethics and morals of journalism and showing upsetting interiors of inside stories. Finally there is the ultimate Front Page Story as an air crash consumes all public interest at the cost of what really matters concerning human values... It seldom happens that I want to see a film over again at once, but this was one of them.

English craftsmanship & entertainment

[ilprofessore-1 · 8/10 · 26 January 2022]

Despite some soap-opera melodramatics and a bit of speech-making at the end, this is in an extremely well made film, directed expertly by Gordon Parry with a excellent cast of British character actors in all the supporting roles. The Fleet Street office seems particularly convincing compared to the cliche Front Page atmosphere of most newspaper American films. Jack Hawkins is the star; his usual dependable self, the epitome of the decent Englishman, torn between his conscience and the demands of daily journalism. The various sub-plots are nicely woven together, and the pace never lets up. A first rate job of entertaining filmmaking.

NOT much Changes

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 22 January 2015]

Jack Hawkins plays the news editor of a daily paper and Elizabeth Allen his wife.He refuses to go away on a planned holiday.However he is really feeling a bit insecure in his job feeling that one of his deputies Derek Farr,is after it.During the day we see a number of stories emerging.A bunch of young children losing their mother,an atomic scientist giving away secrets to an unnamed country and the trial of a woman accused of mercy killing.Interwoven with this is the matrimonial woes of Hawkins.He wont talk to her on the phone.He wont take her out to lunch leaving this to Derek Farr,who once upon a time had an affair with her.She leaves a letter for Hawkins telling him she is leaving him.She heads off for the airport and manages to secure a ticket on a plane to Paris.however she doesn't go which is rather fortunate as the plane crashes killing everyone on board.Her name is on the passenger list and thinks she is dead.As he walks out the foyer at the end of the day there she is waiting for hi.Instead of giving her a warm hug and kiss all she gets is a wan smile from him as they leave together.At the climax of the film there is a long and verbose scene where Hawkins talks with a drunken reporter about the morality of what they are doing.So compared to many American films of this genre this is a pretty lifeless affair.

The 'Fourth State'

[andynarce · 5/10 · 6 November 2022]

By 1953, reporters weren't kings of the 'Fourth State', but mere princes, nevertheless the newsroom was still their mighty palace. 'Front Page Story' presents a whole day in such a domain, with the helmsman: editor John Grant.

The movie is a mediocre 'soap opera' though, with four separated stories of a bittersweet ending: the crisis of Grant's marriage, a woman undergoing a trial for committing euthanasia, a mad scientist accused of espionage, and five kids who end up orphaned after losing their mother and being evicted from their home. Although it's decently filmed and has great scenes at 'Fleet Street' and 'Trafalgar Square', the movie has a poor script, riddled with cliches.