-30- (1959)

A managing editor of a LA newspaper must put together headlines for the next day in a way that'll attract the potential readers, deal with hectic going-ons at the workplace and have a serious talk with his wife about her wish to adopt.

Director:

Jack Webb

Writer:

William Bowers

Stars:

Jack Webb, William Conrad, David Nelson

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jack Webb	...	Sam Gatlin
William Conrad	...	Jim Bathgate
David Nelson	...	Earl Collins
Whitney Blake	...	Peggy Gatlin
Louise Lorimer	...	Lady Wilson
James Bell	...	Ben Quinn
Nancy Valentine	...	Jan Price
Joe Flynn	...	Hymie Shapiro
Richard Bakalyan	...	Carl Thompson
Dick Whittinghill	...	Fred Kendall
John Nolan	...	Ron Danton
Howard McNear	...	Editor
Jonathan Hole	...	Pettifog
Richard Deacon	...	Chapman
Ronnie Dapo	...	Billy

Storyline

Managing Editor Sam Gatlin arrives in the afternoon and departs early the next morning, having assembled a morning newspaper for Los Angeles. During this implausibly active day in the life of a metropolitan newspaper, Sam and his wife Peggy argue about adopting a child. The reporter's grandson pilots a military plane from Honolulu to New York. A child is lost in the LA sewers (Gatlin composes a warning headline with picture: "Children Stay Out of These"). And copy boy Earl Collins considers quitting after failing to properly deliver a bet by city editor Jim Bathgate on the sex of children being born to a famous actress.

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Plot Keywords:

newspaper | editor | managing editor | sewer | pilot | 

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Taglines:

26 + 8 = -30-

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 December 1963 (Mexico)

Also Known As:

Deadline Midnight

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mark VII Ltd.

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"-30-" is used to signify "the end" or "over and out"; it originates from several code tables for telegraph operators. It is traditional in the journalism field and is still used to indicate the end of transmitted news stories and press releases and can frequently be found in formal corporate documents posted on websites and delivered electronically or via print.

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Goofs

After a fledgling writer turns in a news story on her first night as a reporter, the editor sends it to be typeset without even reading it.

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Quotes

Billy: [little boy comes into Gatlin's office and stops by the edge of his desk] Is Mrs. Gatlin in here?
[pause]
Billy: What's all that noise?
[pause]
Billy: Is Mrs. Gatlin here, sir?
Sam Gatlin: Come here to me, son.
Billy: [boy walks over to Gatlin, who picks him up and stands him on top of the desk so they stand eye to eye] Sir, what's that noise?
Sam Gatlin: Don't you know what that is?
[boy shakes his head]
Sam Gatlin: They're printing the funny papers.
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in Law & Order: Criminal Intent: 30 (2007)

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Soundtracks

Boy
Written by Don Ralke and William Bowers
Sung by David Nelson

User Reviews

A Prose Opera

This film is entertaining but marred by a too archly clever script, lines that are delivered, (particularly by William Conrad), as if the speaker were narrating a documentary and scenes that are played at 45RPM instead of 33. The effect is to make the film play like an opera without the music, complete with a mixture of low comedy and high tragedy. An attempt to break the news about a loved one's death becomes an extended discourse on God and the Universe. (I have always found that people in a certain situation are not very interested in the philosophies of people who are not.) Someone makes a wisecrack about the newspaper business and Conrad launches into a sort of aria about the purpose of the news business. He also sings lines like "BBBooooyyy!" when he calls for a copy boy. We have a kid trapped in sewers, another hoping to be adopted by the hero, another dying in a plane crash, etc. etc. I also agree that the thought of David Nelson having been a sergeant in the Korean War when the actor was born in 1936 is absurd.

Still, no one can deny that the film is entertaining for all it's faults. It moves and has real dramatic punch. Jack Webb's performance is his best in the movies since "The Men", (1950), although he still lacks the presence and charisma of the movie star he surely wanted to be. This was almost his last attempt at it after "Dragnet (1954), Pete Kelly's Blues, (1955) and The D.I. (1957). He had one more attempt, "The Last Time I saw Archie" (1961), a service comedy with Robert Mitchum, (now there's a Movie Star!) which, like -30-, was a box office flop and ended Webb's ambitions in this regard. He them became a Warner Brother's executive and then returned to the medium where he really excelled, television.