Park Row

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Chris L This is rough, sometimes corny, but never dull. The enthusiasm for journalism and over-the-top performances should be enough to win most people over. And it stands the test of time as a loving tribute to print and newspaper journalism. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/18 Full Review Audience Member Clearly a labor of love for director Sam Fuller who financed this NY newspaper story out of his own pocket in order to do it his way. The result is a punchy gutsy drama that sees an idealist new editor (Gene Evans) of a start-up paper fighting a larger corrupt rag that uses its wide circulation and power maliciously. The publisher of that other paper (Mary Welch) is wrong-headed but her underlings use real violence to try to smash the smaller new paper. At the same time, Fuller didactically shows us the mechanics of printing a newspaper and the birth of new technologies and innovations. Although a case could be made that the cigar-chomping editor is his surrogate, we also know that he was a copy-boy (perhaps a "printer's devil") when he was a kid. Park Row, the street in NYC near The Bowery where newspapers had their offices/presses, is artificially recreated on a studio set where Fuller is able to move the camera around in long tracking shots and nothing "real" distracts from the sense that we are in 1886. A big part of the story focuses on France's donation of the Statue of Liberty to America and the newspaper's involvement in securing donations for the pedestal on Beddoe's Island. A gritty slab of history told from the heart. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Great story by Samuel Fuller about the importance of the integrity of the fourth estate. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member Puts you in a different world and time, something few movies can and does it with balls and punch. Brisk and bold, just like a headline! Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member http://filmreviewsnsuch.blogspot.com/2013/01/park-row.html Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review walter m In "Park Row," it is 1886 when Phineas Mitchell(Gene Evans), feeling that the newspaper that he works for, The Star, is responsible for the railroading of an innocent man to the gallows, makes an impromptu monument for him in Potters Field. In response, Charity Hackett(Mary Welch), the newspaper's publisher, fires him and Jeff Hudson(Dick Elliott). Before Mitchell can fully destroy his liver, Charles Leach(Forrest Taylor), a printer, wants him to put his money where Mitchell's mouth is by creating a newspaper, The Globe, that Mitchell has always dreamed of. Once Mitchell accepts the deal, The Globe's first story is Steve Brodie(George O'Hanlon) jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. "Park Row" has a crackling story that is filled with historical detail, thus making it one of the most entertaining lectures you might ever see, however fictionalized the story. Samuel Fuller's rousing ode to the golden age of newspapers is set at a time when all it took to publish a newspaper was paper, some money and huge balls(or ovaries, as the case may be.). That's not to say that newspapers did not have responsibility to tell the truth, considering the power they had to shape public opinion, as Fuller ably demonstrates here. All of which is as relevant in 1952 when the movie was made when there were 1772 daily newspapers as it is today when newspapers are an endangered species but still no less important. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Park Row

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