New Print!

A hardbitten city-desk drama can be as satisfying as, well, a tabloid rag, and Sam Fuller knew that story. Based on Fuller's novel The Dark Page, which was in turn based on his experiences as a reporter, Scandal Sheet has all the necessary figures: newspaper editor Broderick Crawford who would kill for the bottom line; his cynical protegé John Derek; idealistic girl reporter Donna Reed; ex-Pulitzer Prize winning wino; Fulleresque, cigar-chomping photog. And it has a palpably, or should we say pulpably, improbable plot involving a lonelyhearts club, Nathanael West gone east. It's all infused with film-noir director Karlson's scrappy intelligence, an attention to detail made physical by cinematographer Burnett Guffey in the streets and backstairs and Bowery bars of New York. We follow the camera, its bleary-eyed dollies, its startling close-ups, and not a wasted shot. We're hooked. That's the story Fuller knew. (JB)